The Merrill Library at the University of Maine at Machias is collecting records of our UMM and greater Washington County community’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. These materials could be anything from a video recording of yourself talking to the camera, an audio recording of you interviewing a friend or family member, a picture of a piece of art you created, or a scan of an entry of a journal you’ve been keeping. All sorts of documentation will be of interest to historians and researchers. If you have anything to contribute, please fill out this form and send it along with your material to ummlibrary@maine.edu. If you do not have a way to digitize your contribution, contact us and we will be happy to discuss how we might acquire a digital representation once the pandemic has passed.
Please submit materials using this form. You can send material directly to ummlibrary@maine.edu
For other questions, please contact Library Director Marianne Thibodeau (mthibod@maine.edu).
Thank you for helping us with this project. Your contributions are a crucial part of telling the story of the COVID-19 pandemic in our community.
General Submission Guidelines
We are asking the University of Maine at Machias and Washington County community members to consider documenting their experiences in whatever form they take, and submitting them to the Merrill Library Special Collections. 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, students who are about to graduate, and students who are still living on or near the Machias 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 ummlibrary@maine.edu to discuss how we might be able to capture some of this work.
For The Washington County Community
We would like to understand how COVID19 has impacted your activities, how you spent your days during the stay-at-home order. How did, "Stay Home, Stay Safe," impact you and your loved ones? 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.
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 ummlibrary@maine.edu. Print the email as a PDF and upload it 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 Library Director Marianne Thibodeau
(mthibod@maine.edu)
A big thank you to Matthew Revitt, University Archivist at the University of Maine's Fogler Library, who graciously shared his project with us.
