The University of Maine Raymond H. Fogler's Special Collections Department has established the University of Maine COVID-19 Community Archive Project which is being hosted in Digital Commons. The goal of this project is to create a community archive that will preserve the story of this unprecedented time in our community. To do this, we need your help. We would like to collect the materials you are creating right now that document this time.
As well as collecting and preserving the University's administration's response we want to know more about the experiences of members of the University of Maine community: students, faculty, researchers, staff, and alumni, whether currently in Maine or not. Future researchers will need materials that answer questions like: What have you been thinking and feeling during this time? What informational materials did you create? How were you helping each other? What did the day-to-day experience of this time look like?
General Submission Guidelines
We are asking community members to consider documenting their experiences in whatever form they take, and submitting them to the archives. This could include: official departmental emails and publications, photographs, personal reflections, social media posts, and updated course syllabi. Our ultimate goal is to make these documents available for research.
If the material falls into legally protected categories i.e. those covered by HIPPA and FERPA, then we recommend not submitting it because this material cannot be released for public use. Additionally access restrictions may be placed on certain content to ensure that privacy and confidentiality are maintained, particularly for individuals and groups who have no voice or role in collections’ creation, retention, or public use.
The easiest way to help us is to upload documents, suggest a website, social media feed, or share an observation, to this form.
For additional suggestions on what type of material we’re looking for and best practices for submitting them, please see below.
For Students
We would like to hear about how you and your community have been dealing with the changes to your academic and social life. We are especially interested in hearing from first-generation students, international students, and students who are still living on or near the Orono campus. We would welcome materials like:
You might also want to create journals, art, blogs, vlogs, or zines. We would love for you to share those with us in any format!
For Faculty and Staff
COVID-19 has dramatically changed how we do our work. We would like to understand how that has affected you. We are particularly interested in documentation you have received or created to navigate this situation. Some examples might be:
Some faculty have created projects and coursework related to the epidemic. If your students are working on a project like this, please reach out directly to matthew.revitt@maine.edu to discuss how we might be able to capture some of this work.
For Researchers
We would like to understand how COVID19 has impacted the University of Maine's research activities, across multiple disciplines. Some examples of material we are interested in:
Alumni
We would like to hear about how you and your community have been dealing with the changes to your work and social life. Please reach out directly to matthew.revitt@maine.edu to submit material.
Submitting Email
Preferred: Compose a new email and attach the original emails to it. Use the subject line: “[COVID-19] Emails."
Other options: Forward individual emails directly to matthew.revitt@maine.edu.
Print the email as a PDF and upload it to using this form. You will be asked to provide your name and a brief description of the document.
Submitting Documents
All digital documents should be submitted using this form. You will be asked to provide your name and a brief description of the document. Submissions may be in the form of digital photographs, text files, PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations, audio files, or video files.
Websites & Social Media
To suggest a website or social media feed to preserve, please use this form.
Observations, Stories, and Other
Is there something else you’d like to share with us? A thought or story? Please submit them as a document attachment using this form.
Questions?
If you have questions that are not addressed in the guidelines above, please feel free to reach out to University Archivist Matthew Revitt (matthew.revitt@maine.edu)
A big thank you to the University of Minnesota and Carnegie Mellon University, whose projects we took our inspiration from.
