{"id":64978,"date":"2020-03-30T15:25:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T19:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=64978"},"modified":"2020-12-09T10:58:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T15:58:22","slug":"niagara-community-encouraged-to-contribute-to-brocks-covid-19-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/03\/niagara-community-encouraged-to-contribute-to-brocks-covid-19-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"Niagara community encouraged to contribute to Brock\u2019s COVID-19 archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

From bare grocery store shelves with ration guidelines, to playgrounds with warning signs, workplace and school closures, and unlimited social media and news content about COVID-19, it\u2019s hard not to feel the impact of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Brock University\u2019s Archives and Special Collections and Digital Scholarship Lab have created a website<\/a> to gather and preserve photos, text, video and other forms of capturing the experience of living in the Niagara region during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the near and far future, students, researchers, authors and other curious folks will be looking for such materials to retell the history of this challenging time,\u201d said David Sharron, Head of Archives and Special Collections at the University\u2019s James A. Gibson Library. \u201cIt was recently the 100th anniversary of the Spanish flu, and people relied on our archives to see what Niagara did in 1918. We want to capture the history of COVID-19 as it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharron says inviting the Niagara community to contribute their materials to the archives will allow for more organic, accurate history.<\/p>\n

\u201cArchives usually receive historical documentation years after something has happened, but doing it in the moment allows primary reaction to be genuine and truly historic,\u201d said Sharron. \u201cIt allows people to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences in real-time, and in a novel way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that giving people a platform to share their experiences while also learning about the experiences of others can allow those feeling isolated to feel less alone.<\/p>\n

Tim Ribaric, Acting Head, Digital Scholarship Lab, has been leading the technical side of the website.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an open access platform at Brock called Omeka, which is an exhibit platform that allows us to showcase digitized materials,\u201d said Ribaric. \u201cYou take that history and information and retain them for people who want to do research about how things such as normal everyday life felt for people in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A couple of key, recent examples in the Brock archives from people who self-submitted are the Occupy Wall Street protest movement in 2011 and the Ferguson Unrest protests and riots in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see people posting on social media every day about what they\u2019re thinking and feeling,\u201d said Sharron. \u201cIt\u2019s front and centre on our minds. To capture these raw emotions is more telling than writing this months later when we polish our thoughts. How we\u2019re living right now is true to history.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two ways to contribute to the project.<\/p>\n