North Carolina State University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Communication Services Records 1926-2022

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 not only provided for a cooperative system of "in the field" extension and demonstration activities, but also made provisions for those activities to be made available to those unable to attend such activities. For the most part, this meant the printing of regular or semi-regular publications. At North Carolina State, such work effectively began with the hiring of Frank H. Jeter in 1914 as agricultural editor. Jeter oversaw the creation of the journal Extension Farm-News in 1915, and quickly expanded the service to the point that, during the 1915-16 school year, his presses were turning out 75,000 items per month. Agricultural communication took the next step when the first radio broadcasts were produced during 1922, and the 1950s saw College agricultural personnel take to the television airwaves to reach even wider audiences. The department has undergone multiple name changes over the years and became the Department of Communication Services in 1998.

The Department of Communication Services provided communication leadership and innovation for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to further the mission of North Carolina State University. The department delivered timely, accurate, research-based information to improve the quality of life for citizens of North Carolina, facilitated the effective transfer of information between clients and their audiences, trained and advised clients in effective communications, and provided communications services.

By 2013, Communication Services was no longer a department under the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It merged with Creative Services to become one of the three units under University Communications. The other units are News Services and Web Communications.

The Department of Communication Services Records contain correspondence and memoranda, reports, news releases, clippings, subject files, plans of work and annual reports, an extensive collection of photographs, negatives, slides, and CD-ROMs and related material concerning the work of the department. Materials range in date from 1926 to 2012.

This collection is divided into eight series: Papers, Negatives and CD-ROMs, Photographs, Slides, Born Digital, Web Content, and Biographical Files. Within the Papers series, materials are arranged in the order received. The materials in the Negatives and CD-ROMs series are arranged by ID number (and therefore chronologically) and include a switch to digital around 2002. The materials in the Photographs series are arranged alphabetically by title. The materials in the Slides series are arranged according to the guides to the slide collection, and the items in the Born Digital series are arranged in the order received. The Biographical Files are arranged alphabetically by last name of the faculty or staff member.

The NC State University Libraries generally claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. Libraries staff are unable to advise on copyright and other legal matters; the user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Helpful resources for assessing copyright include Cornell Libraries’ “Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain,” the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy’s "Is It Protected by Copyright?," and copyright.gov. This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information about identifiable living individuals, which may be protected under federal or state laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that there may be legal ramifications for disclosing this information.

The University Archives operates in accordance with the State Public Records Act, with unrestricted access to records not covered by state and federal statutes and regulations.

[Identification of item], North Carolina State University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Communication Services Records, UA 100.099, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Related Materials

• Robert W. Graeber Papers (MC 00020)

Papers transferred from North Carolina State University, Department of Communication Services.

Photographs and Negatives likely transferred from North Carolina State University, Department of Communication Services. These were previously part of UA 23: University Archives Photograph Collection.

Processed by: Special Collections staff; Laura Abraham, 2009; Stephanie Barnwell 2011 November; machine-readable finding aid created by: Steven Mandeville-Gamble; Finding aid updated by Laura Abraham, 2009 July; Cate Putirskis, 2009 July; Stephanie Barnwell, 2011 November; Unprocessed Series processed by Cathy Dorin-Black, Jessica Watkins, Will Maness, Tyler Ellis, and Manning Peeler ; Finding aid updated to reflect processing by Cathy Dorin-Black, 2016 March; Digital materials processed by Jessica Rayman, 2016 November and December, Todd Kosmerick and Cathy Dorin-Black, 2017 February-March, and Taylor de Klerk, 2017 September-October; finding aid updated by Gevorg Vardanyan, 2023 June; Additional digital materials processed by William Boyer, 2023 August-2024 April; Biographical Files processed by: Lauren Land and Noah Anderson, 2025 August; Collection guide updated by Cathy Dorin-Black, 2025 August.