The State Library of Pennsylvania is collecting materials to create an archive of our Libraries' individual and shared experiences during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic of 2020. We hope that one day this collection will provide valuable insight into daily life for Pennsylvania Library users and employees during this time of crisis.

We welcome documentation that represents individual experiences, as well as documentation that represents the Pennsylvania Library community’s experience more broadly.

This form begins with a series of questions and prompts regarding your thoughts and experiences during the pandemic. Most of your responses are purely voluntary and you may answer or skip as many questions as you would like and provide as little or as much detail as you wish in your answers. You may exit the survey without submitting at any time. Please keep in mind that the more detailed and richer your responses, the more valuable the documentation of your experiences will be to future scholars. Personally identifiable information of third parties should not be shared.  Your contact information such as full name, address, and email will remain confidential to authorized State Library employees only. You may choose to remain anonymous as far as your name being displayed in the State Library’s online, public digital repository alongside your responses/submissions. If you choose to remain anonymous, anything you submit will be labeled as anonymous but display your county of residence with your submissions. Please be aware of any details that you provide that could reveal your identity and answer accordingly if you wish to remain anonymous. Preview the questions.

Do you have additional materials in digital form such as journals, zines, photos of life in quarantine, grocery lists, mask instructions, audio-visual materials such as personal narratives, social media posts, blogs, poems, etc, about your experiences? What represents your life during this crisis? Submissions may be in the following formats: digital photographs, text files, PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations, audio files, video files. After filling out the questionnaire, you will be prompted how and where to submit digital materials. If you have questions or need help, contact ra-edmakerspace@pa.gov.

If you have a physical item such as a handwritten journal, zine, document, or 3-D artifact that you wish to contribute, please contact the Rare Collections Librarian at mlear@pa.gov Please note that the State Library is currently closed and we will not immediately be able to accept physical donations.

At the end of this form, you will receive important information concerning your submission that allows the State Library to preserve, use, and provide public access to your content online and to in-person researchers. Preview these terms and conditions.

Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ)

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