Ball State University is providing a way for people to share their experiences during or related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Document Your Story: COVID-19 Pandemic Project is an ongoing endeavor, spearheaded by the Ball State University Libraries Archives and Special Collections, to collect and preserve items that document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our communities.

By Landa Bagley

History isn’t just made by the famous people and the big events we learned about in school. It is a combination of the stories of every person, and how major events impact people. Those personal stories and impacts need to be gathered, preserved, and shared.

Ball State University is providing a way for people to share their experiences during or related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Document Your Story: COVID-19 Pandemic Project is an ongoing endeavor, spearheaded by the Ball State University Libraries Archives and Special Collections, to collect and preserve items that document the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our communities.

Launched in tandem with the Everyday Life in Middletown Project and the Muncie Public Library, the project began accepting items last year.

“Documenting our experiences may seem simple and small. But in the long term, it can have a big impact on understanding what everyone was going through during the pandemic or later, as a result of it,” said Emma Cieslik, a 2021 Ball State graduate who contributed daily journals she wrote between March and May 2020 to this story archive. She submitted to the archive after one of her professors recommended students document all that is going on during the pandemic.

“There were many important things going on back then, like vaccine development, hospitalizations, and hospital bed availability issues,” Ms. Cieslik said. “I knew that it would also be important to understand the social and cultural impact of this pandemic, and to hear it from everyday people. In those moments, when I was writing my journals about things like cleaning often with disinfectant, struggling to find different grocery items, or missing out on pivotal life experiences, those were among the most important pieces of news of that day, in my life.”

Sarah Allison, University Libraries’ Head of Archives User Engagement, says personal stories can offer a larger lens through which historians and society see major events and their affects.

And, it’s important to get stories of people from a variety of backgrounds.

“A lot of times, that sort of history—especially with under-represented groups—gets missed, not documented, and not made a part of history,” Ms. Allison said. “Journals, papers, and document, that kind of personal ephemera gives some deeper insight about specific impacts that events and actions make on individuals and their communities. This adds context to the larger reported story. You don’t have to be famous to have a place in history.”

Accordingly, University Libraries continues to seek archive contributions from Ball State’s campus community: faculty, staff and students; Ball State alumni throughout the world; and residents, community organizations and local businesses in Muncie and other parts of Delaware County, Indiana. Materials can be digital or physical items.

There is no deadline for submissions. Learn more about contributing digitized items—such as photos, videos, artwork, and written diaries. To donate physical, non-digitized items or to ask questions, email Ms. Allison at smallison@bsu.edu.

The full digital collection can be viewed through the University Libraries Digital Media Repository.