Category Archives: Crowdsourced

The Coronavirus Pandemic — Share Your Story for the Future

The Montgomery Village Museum in Montgomery, New York, is collecting the stories of local residents about living through the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Today we are living in one of the most defining moments of our lifetime.  The national headlines, cable networks, and social media channels will effectively chronicle the stories and headlines of the day.  However 10, 20 or even 50 years from now, the questions from future generations will become more personal. They will wonder and ask: What was it like for you? How did the community respond? What impact did it have on the village, businesses, schools, churches, family, friends and daily life?

How are you documenting your experience during the COVID-19 pandemic? Many village residents are keeping diaries, journals, taking photos etc. Documenting your personal story or even making a few notes each week during this period, can be a wonderful “Stay at Home” activity. Later these documents can be donated, archived, and shared to tell our village story. 

Right now, you can also contribute to our history by completing a survey, developed by the Association of Public Historians of New York State. The survey will be used to collect stories from throughout New York State. The form is set up so submissions directly feed into a special Google email folder that was set up for this project. Once the crisis and the collecting period have ended, the APHNYS will share the responses with each local historian.

If you would like to participate in the survey, please click on the link below.

VILLAGEOFMONTGOMERY.ORG/COVID-19ARCHIVES

You can respond once or multiple times as you have new information to share.

I optimistically look forward to the day when we open our museum doors and begin the healing process of collecting your heartfelt personal stories of sacrifice, commitment, and devotion to community that inspired all of us all through this challenging time.

Keep Everyone Healthy. Please Stay at Home.
Brian Fitzpatrick, Village Historian
historian@villageofmontgomery.org

Community Survey on COVID-19 Crisis

The History Center in Tompkins County and the Cornell University Archives are collaborating in an ongoing archival collections project related to the impacts of COVID-19. To this end, we have created a survey to field responses from the Tompkins County and Cornell community on how people have been experiencing and reflecting on the COVID-19 crisis. While many of us are still processing the events unfolding, we would like to ask those who are willing to share to please take a few moments to fill out our coronavirus survey.
 
When answering these questions or talking about these subjects, consider them in the context of your personal life, family, daily activities, and community. Your responses will be compiled into an archival collection documenting the responses to the COVID-19 outbreak at Cornell and the local repercussions of the disease in Tompkins County. Documenting how the community has grappled with the challenges of this crisis will help scholars, future researchers, and our descendants understand what this tumultuous time was like.
 
For more information about this project, contact the archivist at The History Center in Tompkins County, Donna Eschenbrenner, archives@thehistorycenter.net or the Cornell University Archivist, Evan Earle, efe4@cornell.edu. To learn more about The History Center’s mission, visit their website at https://thehistorycenter.net/.

Social Distancing: Stories from the Union Community

Social Distancing: Stories from the Union Community captures the unique experiences from students, faculty, staff, and community members of Union College, Schenectady, and the region during the COVID-19 pandemic. The site is created and maintained by Schaffer Library in partnership with the Minerva Programs.

The site includes information on Union’s response to the pandemic as it progresses, maps and stories about the Union community’s responses, library and college resources, and the opportunity for community members to contribute their own stories to a community archive. 

 

CUNY Distance Learning Archive

This project documenting the transition to online instruction at CUNY during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic welcomes submissions from the CUNY community of the following nature:

  • Personal narratives reflecting on distance learning, especially during the abrupt shift to online education midway through the Spring 2020 semester. (Here are some suggested questions if you’re having trouble.)
  • Official email communications from CUNY Senior Administrators describing the university’s move to online teaching.
  • Documentation of online learning experiences (photos, narratives, screenshots).
  • Learning resources developed during the transition.
  • Links to social media threads/hashtags/accounts that capture events in real time
  • Email related to the move to online teaching (with express and documented permission of the sender)

Send contributions via our online form below or email your contribution to us at cunyarchive@gmail.com

COVID-19: A Long Island Journal

Molloy College Special Collections is creating an Archive of materials to document this challenging time. They seek journal or diary entries, reflections, photographs, videos, voice memos, audio recordings, and other digital evidence relating to the impact of COVID-19. Handwritten journals and physical works can also be sent in. Examples of experiences may include working from home, the shift to online learning, social distancing, and self-quarantine.

Members of the Molloy family and the greater Long Island community can contribute their experiences using this Google Form (use this MS Form with your molloy.edu account) For questions, please contact Christine Yu, Associate Archivist, at cyu@molloy.edu.

The goal of this collection is to preserve the events and experiences important to individuals and communities in our area so that future generations may learn from our shared journey.

Queens Memory Covid-19 Project

A collaboration between the Queens Public Library and Urban Archive, the Queens Memory Covid-19 Project seeks to document the experiences of Queens residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

4 Ways to Contribute:

  1. Leave a message on their storyline at 1-855-QNS-LOVE (767-5683). In your recording, please include:A. The spelling and pronunciation of your first and last name
    B. Your age
    C. A way to contact you
    D. A description of where you are
  2. Tag the project in your social media posts by using @queensmemory and #QueensCOVID
  3. Use this webform to send in an account of your experience in Queens. This can be captured through writing, photography, sound, or video recordings.
  4. Use this webform to send in oral history interview recordings.

Please note that if you are between the ages of 14 and 18, you must have your guardian’s consent to participate in this program. Children aged 13 or younger may not participate in this program.

OneWorld COVID-19 Special Collection

The Museum of Chinese in America has established the OneWorld Collection to feature acquisitions of a wide range of artifacts, including but not limited to photographs, letters, articles, journals, messages, notes, certificates, medical records, videos, and oral histories of Chinese Americans during this time. This collection will not only feature stories of community efforts but also highlight experiences of individuals and families during these unprecedented times.

They invite Chinese Americans to send a write up and photos to oneworld@mocanyc.org, with the subject line Submission for MOCA OneWorld COVID-19 Special Collection. Explain how you, your association, or your community group organized to help the current crisis. Share a story that is one you believe should be recorded and documented. Please provide your contact information or that of your organization’s or community’s, including full name, email address, phone number, and mailing address.

Our Streets, Our Stories

In an unprecedented time of stress and resilience, many Brooklynites are at the front lines of responding to the coronavirus crisis, and many more are encountering a new normal, as we adjust to changing work, education, housing, and even access to basic amenities.

That’s why Brooklyn Public Library is calling for submissions to its local oral history archive, Our Streets, Our Stories. At this moment in time, we have an opportunity to collect testimonies and memories of the crisis as it is unfolding so that future Brooklynites can understand the pandemic at a local level. If you are a healthcare worker, a teacher, a student, a parent, a community member, a first responder, an essential worker, a senior, or if you are incarcerated or have a loved one who is incarcerated, we want to hear from you. If you are a Brooklynite, this story is your story.

How it works: To contribute your story, or to suggest a community member for an interview, email ososproject@bklynlibrary.org or call (917) 426-1271 and let us know the best way to reach you. A member of BPL staff will set up a time with you to do a remote interview. All you will need is a phone number or a laptop with internet connection. Interviews can last a few minutes or up to an hour, depending on your interest and availability. After it is cataloged by our librarians, your story will be available online, and archived in our permanent collection under a Creative Commons license.

Documenting COVID-19 Project (Amistad Research Center)

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amistad Research Center is launching the Documenting COVID-19 Project to chronicle aspects of the pandemic’s effects around the world.

We invite community members to contribute original digital content, such as images, sound recordings and video related to public signage, contributor-generated and public art, and similar forms of expression.

Documenting COVID-19 Project Team
Phillip Cunningham, Head of Research Services
Brenda Flora, Curator of Moving Images and Recorded Sound
Hsiu-Ann Tom, Digital Archivist

Comeback: Das Corona-Archiv Der Universitåt Gratz

The ComeBack corona archive is a project of the Institute for Educational Science at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. It is intended to be a platform on which thoughts, experiences, feelings, perceptions, encounters and changes of this time can be preserved. This can take the form of stories, photos, video contributions, chat histories, diary entries, newspaper articles, notices, drawings – there is space for everything that concerns people right now. 

  • Instagram: comeback_coronaarchiv
  • Twitter: @ArchivCorona