Coronavirus Chronicles:
– Archives and Libraries Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic in Georgia –
Contribute to a Collection
Browse the list below to see if an institution near you is collecting materials (photographs, videos, and other items) related to your experience of the pandemic.
Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room
Athens Community Archive: Share your Coronavirus/COVID-19 Experience
** Collecting stories from the Athens-Clarke County regional area. **
The Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room is collecting diaries, photos, videos, and audio submissions from its five county area community members. The Athens Community Archive: Share your Coronavirus/COVID-19 Experience sets out to collect, organize, and later display personal accounts of this collective trauma. We are also actively web archiving the community response online as a part of the Internet Archive’s Community Webs project.
Atlanta History Center
Corona Collective: Documenting Atlanta’s Response to COVID-19
** Collecting stories from the city of Atlanta and contiguous counties. **
Atlanta History Center is collecting materials that illustrate how people are experiencing and responding to the COVID-19 crisis. No matter where you are in the Atlanta area, we have all been impacted in some way as states, cities, municipalities, and businesses impose restrictions in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Atlanta History Center seeks to document and preserve your experiences through digital video, audio, photography, and typed stories or personal reflections.
Atlanta University Center
Documenting AUC’s Response to COVID-19 Project
** Collecting stories from the campus. **
The Atlanta University Center is about to begin collecting submissions from our community on COVID-19. We are currently creating our guidelines and submission form. If there aren’t any issues, we will begin collecting by the end of the week As of right now, we are only collecting current faculty, staff, and student responses from the AUC schools. We are going to attempt to use a Survey Monkey form to collect written responses and set up an email and Dropbox to collect audio, video, and images. Our backup option to Survey Monkey is a Google form. The Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library is documenting the AUC community’s response to COVID-19 and the pandemic’s impact on students, faculty, and staff by collecting stories from across the AUC community. These stories will become part of the Library’s Archives Research Center (ARC) and will help future students, administrators, and researchers understand how we experienced this unprecedented situation.
Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System
COVID-19 Community Documentation Project
** Collecting stories from the Central Savannah River area. **
We are living through an historic moment and the Georgia Heritage Room of the Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System wants to preserve this momentous event for our community’s historical record. To do so, we are asking the community to share their impressions and experiences of how COVID-19 has affected and changed their lives.The type of information we are seeking is written documentation, personal stories, photographs (images), audio recordings, video clips, and original artwork which will be collected into an archive chronicling the pandemic in the CSRA so future generations can look back and better understand this period.
DeKalb History Center
The COVID-19 Chonicles: Share Your Story
** Collecting stories from the metro DeKalb area. **
What has your experience been like during the COVID-19 pandemic? The DeKalb History Center is collecting stories from county residents to record the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our communities. Send in your stories, positive or negative, so that they may be documented as part of our shared history. Make a video, write a story, and/or send in pictures that represent your experience with COVID-19. Photos could show your work from home co-workers, homemade masks, nature walks, children’s projects, or empty shelves at your local grocery store.
Georgia Historical Society
COVID-19 in Georgia: Collecting the stories of Georgians during the Pandemic of 2020
Since its founding in 1839, the Georgia Historical Society has been and continues to be the repository for the stories of people and events that created modern Georgia. For this initiative GHS is looking for stories, documents, photographs, journals, artwork and other materials related to this unprecedented time in our history.
Georgia State University Archives & Special Collections
GSU’s Response to COVID-19: Share Your Story
** Collecting stories from the campus. **
Georgia State University Library is documenting the university’s response to COVID-19 and the pandemic’s impact on students and employees by collecting stories from the Georgia State community. These stories will become part of the University Archives and will help future students, administrators, and researchers understand how we experienced this unprecedented situation.
Kennesaw State University Museums, Archives and Rare Books
Documenting COVID-19 and the KSU Community
** Collecting stories from the campus. **
On March 30th, 2020, the Kennesaw State University Archives launched the Documenting COVID-19 and the KSU Community project to record the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on KSU students, faculty, and staff. This project will allow our community members to contribute their experiences and reactions to the pandemic to the historical record of the University in the form of personal narratives, photographs, videos, and other materials. These contributions are being collected by the KSU Archives utilizing Qualtrics and Microsoft Forms.
Marshes of Glynn Libraries
Coronavirus on the Coast
**Collecting stories from Glynn County**
The Marshes of Glynn Libraries are collecting photos and documents from the public to develop a digital archive about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in Glynn County. If you would like to submit something to this project, please fill out the form linked to above as completely as possible. Before submitting a photo or document, you will be asked to agree to two statements regarding your ownership of that content. Please read carefully before you agree.
Middle Georgia Regional Library
Middle Georgia Pandemic Archive
** Collecting stories from the metro area. **
Like so many around the world, people in the Middle Georgia Community are living in the midst of an historic crisis. Historians will want to know how we lived and experienced the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020. The experiences of everyday people are essential to understanding the past and this moment in our lives is no different. The Middle Georgia Archives invites members of the community to document their experience. This can be in the form of journal/diary, artwork, poetry, stories, oral history interviews, video, items, etc.. These will all be personal reflections and the focus is on self-expression and a willingness to share.
Sequoyah Regional Library System
COVID-19 History Project
**Collecting stories from Cherokee, Pickens, and Gilmer Counties**
The Sequoyah Regional Library System wants to hear from you about your experiences during this time of pandemic. Many years from now, our community will look back on these months as an important and critical moment in history. Share your stories so that we can compile an archive of this time for our future generations.
UGA (University of Georgia) Libraries
Coronavirus Collection
** Collecting stories from the UGA campus and statewide. **
As history unfolds during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries are collecting experiences and responses from Georgians to preserve for generations to come. Georgia residents can contribute to the project by sharing how the crisis has impacted their family, business, education, and well-being. Digital submissions may include personal reflections, photos, poetry, recordings or any other means that demonstrate how the pandemic affects people’s lives.
University Libraries, Georgia Southern University
Eagle Nation Reflections on COVID-19
** Collecting stories from the Campus + Southeast Georgia, including the Counties of Bulloch, Screven, Liberty, Candler, Tattnall, and Effingham. **
Georgia Southen University Libraries is accepting submissions in a variety of styles and formats that showcase the wide range of experiences our community is having during this time in history. The formats individuals choose document not only this specific moment in history but also the various modes of communication available to society as a whole. Options include answers to suggested questions, journal, blogs, poetry or haiku, original artwork (Drawing, Painting, Mixed Media, etc.), photographs, video recordings, vlogs, voice recordings, podcasts, or anything you want!
University of West Georgia Special Collections
UWG COVID-19 Collection
** Collecting stories from the UWG campus and West Georgia regional area. **
In spring semester 2020, UWG Special Collections set out to document the social and historical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on how the outbreak affected the west Georgia region. The materials collected here show how the outbreak affected and disrupted virtually every aspect of daily life in the area. Included are newspaper articles, newsletters, correspondence from businesses, statements from public officials, photographs, personal testimonies, and other materials.
Documenting Disaster: Resources for Libraries
If your library or archives is considering an emergency community documentation project, explore the resources below for suggestions, best practices, and precautions.
- May Day! How Georgia’s Archives & Libraries are Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic (**WEBINAR**)
May 1, 2020, 2:00-3:30pm
During this panel discussion, representatives from four different Georgia institutions will talk about their pandemic documentation projects. They will provide tips and strategies for documenting tragedies with respect, care, and privacy in mind. This webinar will be recorded and shared. Webinar documents and additional resources will be available at bit.ly/GAMayDay2020.
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Documenting COVID-19
A collaborative, editable document of COVID-19 documentation projects happening around the world.
- Documenting in Times of Crisis: A Resource Kit
Tragedy Response Initiative Task Force
Society of American Archivists
- Documenting Your Community’s Experience of COVID-19: A Resource List
Students and New Archives Professionals (SNAP)
Society of American Archivists
- Ethical Considerations for Archiving Social Media Content Generated by Contemporary Social Movements: Challenges, Opportunities, and Recommendations
Bergis Jules, Ed Summers, Dr. Vernon Mitchell, Jr.
Documenting the Now
- Resources for Archiving the Aftermath
Compiled by Ashley Maynor