Since 1889, North Dakota Blue Books have been published by the North Dakota Secretary of State. Beginning in 1995, these books have been published every biennium. These volumes are a compendium of information about the state’s political, economic, social, cultural and environmental history, and current status.
Recent editions are sold in the Museum Store at the North Dakota Heritage Center, 701-328-2822.
Digitized Blue Books can now be viewed online using Digital Horizons. They can be searched individually or all at once.
The links below will open in a new window or tab in your browser.
Instructions to search the digitized Blue Books individually:
- Click on the link at right of the individual Blue Book you wish to search. Your selection will open in a new tab or window.
- Enter your search term in the small box with the magnifying glass marked Text Search, then click Go.
- If you include more than one search term in the search box, the system will display the total of the number of times each word appears. For more effective searching, only enter the most specific of your search terms.
- The number of times your search terms are found within the individual Blue Book is displayed in red next to the Go button. To view the pages that contain your search terms, scroll through the list of thumbnails on the right and find those with a red border. You can then click the thumbnail image to view the full page.
- To return to the list of Blue Books, look for the North Dakota Blue Book tab or window in your browser.
Instructions to search all of the currently digitized Blue Books at once:
- Click here to go to Digital Horizons.
- Enter your search term in the Search box at the top of the page, then click Search. Click the cover of the Blue Book of your choice to look inside for your search terms.
- The number of hits for your search terms found within the individual Blue Book is displayed in red next to the Go button. If your search term(s) appears only once in the Blue Book, the specific page that contains your search term(s) will appear on the Results page as a separate result. If your search term(s) appear more than once, click on the cover of the Blue Book of your choice to open an individual edition of the Blue Book. You’ll need to scroll through the list of thumbnails on the right to find those with a red border. You can then click the thumbnail image to view the full page.
- To return to the Results page, click Results in the upper right hand corner.
- You can click any of the other Blue Book covers to see where your search terms are in the other Blue Book editions.
- To run another search, enter more search terms in the search box across the top of any page. Be sure to click the new search/within results option at the end of the search box if you want to do a brand new search, or add additional words to refine your current search.
