“Library of Congress Builds New Collections Documenting COVID-19 Pandemic”

From LC:

As the world marks the one-year anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Library of Congress has been collecting materials and documenting this time in history through a variety of initiatives.

The Library’s rapid-response collecting since the start of lockdowns and social distancing measures over the past year has included acquiring photographs that document the pandemic’s impact on individuals and communities, capturing artists’ responses to the outbreak, mapping the pandemic’s spread and archiving the world’s response online.

“The extraordinary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in our communities, families and social interactions is unlike anything we’ve seen in the past century,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “Archivists and librarians at the Library of Congress are committed to documenting and preserving this difficult time in history through the eyes of artists, photographers, scientists and digital communicators in our collections.”

The LC announcement continues with examples (and links) to some of these collections/projects.

They include:

• Contemporary Artists Respond to Global Pandemic
• American Experiences: Crowdsourcing Photographs and Graphic Art on Flickr
• Community Impact: Photographs by Camilo José Vergara
• Performing Arts Creative Response to Pandemic
• A Personal Perspective: Toni Lane’s Drawings
• Mapping the Pandemic
• Archiving the Pandemic Online
• Collecting Across the Library

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