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campusreview.com.au
Call for COVID-19 memories
How the University of Sydney
is preserving the pandemic
for posterity.
By Wade Zaglas
COVID-19 has brought the world to
its knees and triggered a rethink
of how society operates. For this
reason, the University of Sydney Library
is asking staff and students to contribute
something that encapsulates their
experiences of living through the pandemic,
via its ‘Collecting COVID-19’ project.
“We are creating a collection to
preserve the daily individual reality of
the pandemic’s impact on the university
community,” said Liz Litting, associate
director of the university library.
“It will hopefully create a cultural
record and a valuable historical resource
for our own and future generations.”
People are encouraged to submit a range
of different materials, including videos,
personal diaries, artworks, photographs,
newsletters, poetry and short reflections
– anything that captures their responses,
feelings and attitudes during the pandemic.
The university’s library will also
collaborate with the State Library
of New South Wales to gather and
curate social media content on the
pandemic, including specific hashtag
content such as #usydonline.
The university library houses a large
collection of cultural heritage materials,
and some can be viewed through the
library’s Digital Collections repository.
Research and metadata related
to COVID-19 will also be available
to researchers and the public.
For university historian Associate
Professor Julia Horne, preserving
records and cultural materials helps
us gain a deeper appreciation
or a window into the past.
“It is only through the preservation of
records from the Spanish Flu pandemic
that we know today the university was
faced with the difficult decision of
approving first-year medical students
being used to support containment of
the flu in the absence of other medical
workers still stuck in Europe at the end
of the First World War,” she said.
In what has been a difficult year
for international students, Horne has
encouraged them to contribute as well,
including in their own languages, and
for new undergraduates to provide their
perception of living through this experience.
An honorary archivist for the university’s
School of Medicine and Royal North Shore
Hospital is also participating in the project.
Associate Professor Catherine Storey
is a retired neurologist who supervises
research projects at the University of
Sydney involving the history of medicine.
“We often miss what happens at
ground level and don’t realise the
importance of documenting the period
we are living through, which, with the
emergence of social media, is more
challenging than ever,” Storey said.
“What people might consider as
‘trivial’ is often the most revealing, such
as lecturers’ notices to their classes.
“During the pandemic, I’ve been keeping
a diary but also collecting institutional
notices, messages and fact sheets that
have been issued and published online.”
Storey will work between the
University of Sydney Library, the State
Library of NSW and the National Library
in Canberra to contribute to their
records, and the university’s library
will seek permission to share materials
housed in the other two libraries.
It is hoped that the University of Sydney’s
cultural collection of the pandemic
will complement other national and
international records of the event. ■
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