Lovoll received his education both in Norway and in the United States, passing university exams at the University of Bergen in 1961 and at the University of Oslo in 1966 and 1967. Lovoll graduated from the University of North Dakota (M.A. 1969) and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D. 1973). He served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota from 1967 to 1970. For thirty years, Lovoll served on the faculty of St. Olaf College. He retired from the King Olav V Chair in Scandinavian-American Studies at St. Olaf College in 2000. From 1980 until 2001, he served as publication editor for the Norwegian-American Historical Association.

Lovoll was decorated with the Knight's Cross First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in 1986 by Olav V of Norway. In 1989, he was inducted into membership in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He was inducted into the Scandinavian Hall of Fame at the 2001 Norsk Høstfest.

Scope and Content:
Most of the material in the Odd S. Lovoll papers revolve around his published works. This includes correspondence, artwork, photographs, notebooks, and research notes. Lovoll has published many books, including:

• A Folk Epic: The Bygdelag in America (1975)
• The Promise of America: A History of the Norwegian-American People (1983)
• A Century of Urban Life: The Norwegians in Chicago before 1930 (1988)
• The Promise Fulfilled: A Portrait of Norwegian Americans Today (1998)
• Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town (2006)
• Norwegian newspapers in America: Connecting Norway and the new land (2010)
• Across the deep blue sea: The saga of early Norwegian immigrants (2015)
• Two Homelands: A Historian Considers His Life and Work (2018)