In 2016, The Norwegian Institute of Local History (NLI) celebrated its sixtieth anniversary as an independent institution. At the end of the year, important changes took place. It was decided that the institute should be incorporated into the National Library from 1 January 2017. The purpose was to ensure the continuation, as well as to further develop the field NLI has been responsible for. NLIs history was written for its fiftieth anniversary in 2006. This article details NLIs newer history from 2006 to 2017, and provides an overview of the important changes that have occurred in its strategies and focus areas.

At the centre of attention in local history - as an academic field and as a passion - is the local community. But what is a local community? As a concept, it rests somewhere between the 'ethnic group' of anthropologists and cultural historians, and the 'neighbourhood' of social geographers. We often understand it as a geographically bounded area, within which residents have more political, administrative, and social contact with each other than they have with others. This article argues that life online needs to be taken into account when writing local history, discusses local communities online, and whether local communities may be born digitally.

The article discusses the interconnections between the international trade emerging in the 18th century and the middling merchant family Cramer in Trondheim, Norway. It reveals until now little – known details about the copper trade, with particular emphasis on how it impacted the lives of the Cramer family. Using the Cramer familys`relationship with international trade as a focus, the article also draws attention to how major economic processes may affect individuals, but also how individuals participate in, and influence, these processes.

The subject matter of local history is said to be local communities. Several characteristics are often mentioned - shared resource base, stability, common history and traditions, shared culture, belonging and group identification, a certain autonomy, internal interaction and a certain isolation. When these variables are systematized, the traditional concept may be pinned down to internal cohesion, external borders, residential stability and territoriality. However, the American social scientist Charles Tilly has claimed that this notion refers to a fictitious unity. Several criticisms have been directed at the concept, such as drawing borders too strictly, underestimating mobility and migration beyond the local community and stressing internal homogeneity too much. Yet, sociology and local history have clung to the notion, due to a need for constructing cohesion while the world of the 19^th and 20^th centuries experienced huge transformations. As an alternative to the territorially bound concept, a relational approach is suggested. This opens for thinking beyond the either-or logic. People may participate in more than one community, for example digital communities. Finally, some suggested solutions are addressed, such as John Barnes' network analysis. Yet there is need for further thinking, Otherwise, local history may find itself without a scientifically defined subject matter.