Standing in an empty 7,200-square-foot room, Jerry Newborg see more than bare concrete. He sees rows of tightly packed shelves holding nearly endless clearly labeled cartons of records. He sees the state's most important paper documents and film catalogued and safely preserved. He sees history in its raw form waiting for researchers, authors and interested citizens.

Newborg has been the guiding hand in developing the nearly complete, 30,000-square-foot addition to the archives. It is a $5.7 million addition to the North Dakota Heritage Center.

"To be able to leave with this kind of addition is a good feeling," said Newborg, whose last day at the State Historical Society of North Dakota will be Nov. 9, less than a week after the archive's ceremonial opening. He's retiring. There will be a ribbon-cutting program for the addition at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 2, during the annual Governor's Conference on North Dakota History.

Newborg arrived in Bismarck to take the job of state archivist in 1981, shortly after the Heritage Center opened.

The addition represents more than just empty space for shelves. That's just the surface. A section of those tightly packed shelves, sitting on rails that allow for one shelving unit to be placed flush with the next, fully loaded with documents, can weigh 10 tons. That means a heavy-duty foundation. And humidity and temperature are issues. The concrete walls you can see from the inside are coated with sealant. There's insulation, more air space and then the exterior stone has been hung on metal brackets.

"It's an appropriate space for preservation of the most valuable documents that the state has," Newborg said. "There are environmental controls, security of the building (in terms of construction) and physical security."

Technology has changed dramatically in terms of archiving materials during Newborg's career. From mostly paper documents, the world moved to film and video and electronic forms of communication and recording of events.

"What do you do with electronic records?" Newborg asked rhetorically. "How do you maintain the integrity of electronic records? How do you store them?"

And it isn't just storing them that matters. How do you then access them? Sort through them? How long will it last?

Newborg offered this illustration. If you open a closet full of papers, you can sit down and sort it. But if you open a closet full of tapes, what do you do? Is it 8-track? Video? What if there are floppy disks? Hard drives?

"Digital is both a blessing and a curse," Newborg said.

The SHSND does have an extensive collection of film, starting from the early in the 20th century, but more heavily from the television era, as well as film from the former Bill Snyder studio in Fargo.

Bismarck historian Frank Vyzralek, who was the first state archivist and Newborg's predecessor, started that collection and "after I came, I continued Frank's work," Newborg said. "It's a huge mass … how do you search and describe it, that's a challenge, and it's a huge preservation challenge."

The middle floor of the three-floor addition to the archives will be given over mostly to film and video. The top floor, typical archives collections, and the bottom floor, newspapers, allowing for a shift in material in the existing space and creating an opportunity to "differentiate the space."

"Color film can be best preserved in a freezer, but then you can't just pop it out and use it,"Newborg said. In general, the environment in the archives will have an air temperature in the mid-60s and a relative humidity between 35 percent and 45 percent.

People expect to have access to all of that information in the archives, said Newborg, identifying that as another major change evolving during his career. The biggest number of researchers are family researchers, and mixed in with them are people looking for birth records and census materials in preparation for retirement, he said. And then there are academics, people writing books and people with an interest in a particular issue or event.

The archives has gone through a cycle of town histories and anniversaries. "They roll from east to west,"Newborg said.

As to achievements, although Newborg is quick to give credit to the staff at the Heritage Center, he cited the micro filming of the state's newspapers. "From small towns about the only thing to survive has been the newspapers," Newborg said. "They have been a godsend." O.G. Libby, a university professor and early secretary of the SHSND, succeeded in getting a law passed that required newspapers to send copies to the state historical society, he said.

Merl Paaverud is the director of the SHSND and Heritage Center. About Newborg, Paaverud said, "When I'm in a situation, I go to him for advice and help and he comes through. He's a leader in technology and our guru on the Web site."

Communications and Education Director Rick Collin cited Newborg's work on the veterans oral history project and his series on past governors for the agency's journal, North Dakota History, as important contributions.

"Few know the political history of this state better,"Collin said.

And Paaverud said, "He's the soft-spoken voice of reason."

What's next of Newborg?

Gerald "Jerry" Newborg and his wife, Jean, are from the Red River Valley, both farm kids.

And both received master's degrees from the University of North Dakota.

After Jerry finished defending his dissertation, D. Jerome Tweton asked, "What are you going to do now?"

He suggested archives.

Newborg, now 64 years old, became the state archivist for the state of Ohio.

The Newborgs have two adult children.

What will retirement bring?

"I'll be able to set my own pace," he said. "I've that list of things to do some day. Spend time reading, that might not sound very exciting, but it does to me. Travel. Home projects."

He likely will continue projects at the Heritage Center, as well.