For over a year, Henry Madden Library’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) has been documenting the campus response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Capturing myriad websites, communications, projects and documents from Fresno State leadership faculty and students, has allowed them to build a collection of digital materials for future scholars to study. The SCRC is still accepting submissions of student, faculty and staff experiences of the pandemic to be included in the archives for future posterity.

The project was inspired by the fact that when searching the archives for how the Fresno Normal School (Fresno State’s earliest incarnation) responded to the 1918 influenza pandemic, there was precious little to go on.

“There is relatively little written about the 1918 pandemic. . . And there’s just not a whole lot of information on it,” says Julie Moore, librarian in Special Collections. “So when we have the next pandemic, hopefully, we will leave behind a treasure trove of information that explains what we have lived through – both the positives and the negatives. And how it can inform our future researchers.”

Adam Wallace, the digital archives specialist in the SCRC, began putting in place a system to capture how Fresno State adjusted to the pandemic and now how it repopulates the campus. Having submissions from individuals will round out the archives, giving a specific, personal perspective to the activities on campus.

A wide variety of digital materials can be considered including social media photos and videos, lesson plans adjusting to remote learning, student or department projects that shifted due to the requirements of the pandemic, even art or photos students have saved when they are affected by COVID-19. Everything from screenshots to selfies are valuable to future scholarship.

To submit digital materials to the archive, fill out the form with your information and your digital files. Read more about the Fresno State COVID-19 Digital Archive and the work of Special Collections in documenting the pandemic at Madden Library News.

For inquiries regarding the Fresno State COVID-19 Digital Archive, email the Special Collections Research Center at the Henry Madden Library, scrc@mail.fresnostate.edu.