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In this together: UK Libraries documenting COVID-19 experiences with help from residents

Posted at 2:36 PM, Dec 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-09 18:23:13-05

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — One hundred years from now, UK Libraries is ensuring people will understand what it was like to live in Kentucky during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, the library is asking for your personal stories to keep for history.

UK Libraries collects rare and unique resources that document the history and culture of Kentucky.

"So that could be in the form of photographs, of letters, of business records, oral history," Assistant Dean of the Special Collections Research Center Deirdre Scaggs said.

The library has a big collection of pieces of history in Kentucky politics, Appalachian history and the 1918 flu pandemic. Those pieces from the 1918 pandemic have been of interest this year as we navigate COVID-19.

"When people started asking for those materials, they wanted to know, you know, how did people feel during that time, what their day to day lives were like, what did it look like," Scaggs said.

To continue to capture history, UK libraries is asking for you to give them your personal anecdotes of what it's like to live in Kentucky in 2020.

"Whether it's about working, or not working, whether it's about being personally affected by either having COVID-19 yourself or having a family member," Scaggs said.

Scaggs says the goal is to continue to save the experiences of people like us.

"So often in history we get the viewpoints of people at the top, or people in power, and really it's about us," she said.

The library is looking for journal entries, pictures, videos, audio recordings. To submit something, follow this link.