COVID 19 Community Archive: Sharing Your Experience

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everyone’s lives in the last few months, developing into an unprecedented time in modern history. Future generations will look back and want to understand the local impact of living through a global pandemic from day to day and week to week. Fondulac District Library invites you to contribute to the creation of a virtual archive documenting the community’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Documenting and sharing these experiences is encouraged as a way to connect with others and provide context during this historic crisis.

What does sharing your experience entail? We are compiling stories and images that represent your personal experiences and perspectives. The method and format your choose is up to you, but ideas include writing in a journal, recording voice memos or interviews, taking photos and videos, writing letters, or creating artwork representing your experience. Consider your emotions, daily challenges, or how your role as a parent, student, educator, employee, or essential worker has changed during the pandemic. What anxieties or frustrations are you facing, and what things are you grateful for? What are you noticing about everyday changes in the world around you?

Physical materials will not be collected, but you’re welcome to submit digital photographs of your art or other physical items. Participants may submit multiple entries throughout the collection period. Submissions will be used for the public digital archive, library social media, and future exhibitions. Please comply with social distancing and public safety guidelines while self-documenting. We are all going through this together, and we look forward to hearing your stories and appreciate your contributions!

Please contact Laura Warren at laura@fondulaclibrary.org with any questions.

    Your First and Last Name (required)

    Your Email Address (required)

    Please check all that apply.
    My story is about my life as a resident of East Peoria (Tazewell County).
    My story is about working in East Peoria (Tazewell County).
    My story is related to East Peoria in some other way. (Please discuss this in your story or description of your file.)

    Share your story. Tell us who you are and about your COVID-19 experience, in your own words.

    If submitting a file, please include details describing the subject, dates, location, relevance, etc.

    Files must be 12MB or less.
    Allowed file types: gif jpg jpeg png txt rtf pdf doc docx mov mp3 mp4 mv4.

    Please upload your file here.

    Submit video(s) by listing either individual shareable YouTube or Vimeo links, or individual shareable links to a file in Google Drive or Dropbox. The library will download a copy to save in its archive.

    You are being asked to contribute your recollections, photographic images, video, or other digital content to Fondulac District Library, which is creating a digital record of the COVID-19 experience.  

    You may only submit material created entirely by you and not copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain, or you have permission of the copyright owner, or its use is allowed by "Fair Use" as prescribed by the terms of United States copyright law.

    You must be 18 years of age or older to submit material. By submitting content through this form, you are granting Fondulac District Library permission to disseminate, preserve, and use that content in connection with its educational and research mission, including promotional purposes, in all media in perpetuity. You retain ownership of and copyright in the material you share. 

    If you indicate on the form that your submission is “public,” your material may be published on the web (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated) as part of Fondulac District Library digital collections or exhibits. Your material also may be exhibited physically or digitally in the library. Otherwise, your material will only be available per Fondulac District Library guidelines.

    Submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. Please be aware that all submissions and any information associated with the submissions (email address, descriptive information, etc.) may be provided to federal, state, or local law enforcement or other government agencies pursuant to a lawful subpoena or otherwise as required by law. 

    Fondulac District Library is not obligated to include your content in this project or preserve it in perpetuity.  Decisions to decline submissions will adhere to the guidelines of the library’s collection, deaccession, and conduct policies.

    My submission may be “public” and included in publications, digital collections, and exhibits and may include my name.
    YesNo

    My submission may be “public” and included in publications, digital collections, and exhibits but should be listed without my name/anonymously.
    NoYes

    (Please note that regardless of your selection above, your information could be subject to release under law. The library values your privacy and will do its best to redact anything allowable under law.)