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Screenshot of Archive Activation wesbite
A screenshot of the homepage for the Archive Activation website. Record your own COVID-19 experiences with the Archive Activation tool by visiting: https://storycorps.org/covid-19-american-history-project/.

American Folklife Center Launches COVID-19 Archive Activation Page with StoryCorps

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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every American, many to this day. These experiences—be they painful, uplifting, or examples of resilience—represent a rich archive of stories that answer the following question: how will Americans living 50, 100, or 200 years in the future know what life was like during the COVID-19 pandemic? The American Folklife Center is proud to announce a new and powerful tool that will help. Created with StoryCorps, the new Archive Activation page empowers anyone with an internet connection to record and upload their COVID-19 experiences, or interview someone else about their pandemic story. Submitted stories will then be deposited into archives of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and made accessible at archive.storycorps.org, creating a diverse record of Americans’ experiences during this tumultuous time in our nation’s history. We encourage you to participate! The page is open to anyone who wants to tell their COVID-19 story, but encourages submissions from frontline workers, medical professionals, and emergency service specialists. The Archive Activation page is part of the COVID-19 American History Project—a Congressionally mandated project to “collect, preserve, and make available to the public an archive of submitted oral stories of those who were impacted by the COVID–19 pandemic.”

If you would like to share your COVID-19 story or interview a family member about their pandemic experiences, follow the steps below:

For more information, be sure to visit the Archive Activation page’s “How Recording Works” and “Recording FAQ” sections. You are also welcomed to contact the American Folklife Center at [email protected].

During the holiday season, recording interviews with Archive Activation is a great way to honor family members. Recording your own COVID-19 experiences is a good opportunity to reflect upon the previous year before 2024’s arrival.

The Archive Activation page is a continuation of the collaborative work between the American Folklife Center and StoryCorps—an organization whose mission is to “to help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all—one story at a time.” The Archive Activation page is also the latest update to the COVID-19 American History Project. In October 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted fieldworkers to conduct oral history interviews about frontline workers’ experiences with COVID-19. This work will produce approximately eighty, new interviews about Americans’ pandemic experiences. In November, the American Folklife Center updated its COVID-19 research guide. These updates include new entries of Library of Congress collections related to COVID-19—such as the Nocturnists and Pandemic Pregnancies Project collections—and key collections of COVID-19 experiences external to the Library. In 2024, the American Folklike Center will launch new phases of the COVID-19 American History Project – stay tuned for more updates!

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https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2023/12/american-folklife-center-launches-covid-19-archive-activation-page-with-storycorps/
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