Library of Congress launches covid oral history project
The Library of Congress and StoryCorps announced this week that they have created a website for people to record for posterity their experiences with the covid-19 pandemic.
Stories, or interviews with others who were touched by the pandemic, can be recorded online. They will be preserved in the Library’s American Folklife Center and made accessible at archive.StoryCorps.org.
“Our goal for the COVID-19 Archive Activation page is to honor those who experienced this tumultuous moment in our nation’s history, commemorate those who were lost … and to educate future generations about what life was like during” the pandemic, Nicole Saylor, director of the American Folklife Center, said in a statement.
“We are particularly interested in doing this work through people’s stories, as storytelling is a crucial medium of communication,” she said.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in the statement: “Recording the voices and stories of Americans’ experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic for our national collections will … ensure these stories will not be forgotten.”
Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, more than 1 million Americans have lost their lives and 6 million have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Variants of the disease continue to sicken people, although effective vaccines have reduced serious illness.
In 2021, the library acquired a collection of audio diaries from more than 200 health-care workers compiled by The Nocturnists, a San Francisco-based independent medical storytelling community and podcast.
And it has gathered an array of covid-related artifacts, including art, data, photographs and posters to illustrate the impact of the disease.
“Our goal is that, centuries from now, people looking through these online archives will know that, amidst the darkness of the global pandemic, America discovered its strength in unity, resilience, and innovation,” Library spokeswoman Maria Peña said in an email.