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Editor鈥檚 note:听To collect these assets and complete this project, students followed strict health and safety COVID-19 guidelines that included social distancing.听For audio or video interviews, students conducted them virtually by phone or online video conferencing platform.

During COVID-19 isolation, many rituals that mark our important achievements and transitions have been canceled. Events like commencements, weddings and proms are being celebrated remotely with video conferences on phones and computers.

Public officials continue to urge people to stay home and limit social contact with others. Businesses and schools are closed.听

To document the ways COVID-19 has affected the university community, the 麻豆免费版下载Boulder Libraries Department of Special Collections, Archives and Preservation (SCAP) has launched the听Documenting Community, 2020 Digital Archives project.听

Students participating in the project are producing a variety of creative works and are recording interviews with students, staff, educators, friends, family and community members. The goal is to gather student impressions of the events occurring during social distancing throughout the country.听

In this unprecedented time in history, students in several departments have served as archivists to preserve their voices, thoughts and experiences. Students from English, history, Sewall RAP; art and art history; the College of Media, Communication and Information; interdisciplinary media arts practices; and the Program for Writing and Rhetoric are participating in the project with student employees from SCAP and the University Libraries.

A collection of photography, audio interviews, digital mapping, artwork, diaries and timelines has created the foundation for the COVID-19 digital archive at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder.

The idea for the project grew from a conversation听Susan Guinn-Chipman, SCAP鈥檚 instruction and exhibits manager with University Libraries, had with a group of students a few days before the campus closed in March.听

鈥淚t was their senior year and they were really feeling the loss of those special things that are embedded in the culmination of one鈥檚 undergraduate studies and that really struck me,鈥� Guinn-Chipman said. 鈥淭here are so many things about the senior year that are important. Initially, we thought of the project as a way to give students a means with which to reflect and to process the feelings they were experiencing through quarantine and the pandemic.鈥�

Additionally, SCAP had been brainstorming ways that student employees could work remotely. From there the Documenting Community, 2020 project expanded to include students in other departments.

鈥淏efore students started their projects, we provided them with the permission and release forms that they would need to conduct interviews with and to take digital photos of individuals,鈥� said Kalyani Fernando, collection development archivist. 鈥淥ur set of guidelines stressed the importance of obtaining these permissions, and the ethics behind documenting other people鈥檚 experiences.鈥澨�

鈥榃hat they鈥檙e going through does matter鈥�

One of the student archivists was Drew Gaines, a听graduating senior who听majored in history with a minor in ethnic studies and philosophy.听

Gaines became involved with the project through her history internship with the library鈥檚 special collections department. And since she couldn鈥檛 work on her original hands-on job cataloging and producing a finding aid for one of the library collections, she joined the Documenting Community project.

She used a combination of photography and interviews with students. When walking around campus and Boulder, she photographed unique-looking COVID-related signs, such as, 鈥淭here are new rules,鈥� or 鈥淪tore is closing temporarily.鈥� She has since moved back home to Illinois where she continued listening to students鈥� stories about how they鈥檙e feeling about COVID-19. She is taking photographs of businesses in towns around听the听North Shore of Chicago听near where she lives听in听Highland Park, Illinois.

Participating in this project has allowed Gaines to reflect on what it means to lose cultural rituals.听

鈥淪o many people said that talking about it helps them process what鈥檚 going on,鈥� Gaines said. 鈥淐OVID tragedies are all over. It can feel like no one is listening to our own losses. Because there is such a nationwide spread of loss, when you hear someone say 鈥業 care about you and I care about what you鈥檙e going through,鈥� it shifts that story where students can feel like what they鈥檙e going through does matter.鈥�

Through her interviews, Gaines learned that students are mourning the loss of social rituals, particularly the graduating seniors. All the social rituals that go along with this momentous occasion of commencement had been stripped away. Their families and friends couldn鈥檛 witness it in person, there were no parties, no celebrations.

鈥淥ne of the most impactful interviews I did was with a senior,鈥� Gaines said. 鈥淲e were talking about graduation and how she鈥檚 feeling about not being able to be there in person. She said graduation isn鈥檛 just about herself. It was about her entire family. It was about the fact that she was the first generation to graduate and how she should be there in person and experiencing it with friends and family.鈥�

The student also missed not being able to hug friends and family.听

鈥淚t made me think about the loss of cultural rituals,鈥� Gaines said. 鈥淭he thing about them is it鈥檚 not just graduation but also funerals, birthdays, weddings, all these monumental events that are sentimental in person, but are now gone.鈥�

Gaines celebrated commencement听with family and friends through an online video chat dinner.听

Unlike talking to people and hearing about their experiences, photography is a solo process for Gaines as she walks around the city with her camera. In those moments, as she looks around, no one else is on the street and businesses are closed or struggling to open. That鈥檚 when it hits her.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 the future going to be like for those businesses and when can they reopen?鈥� she asks. 鈥淲hat does that mean for the owners and employees? What does it mean for all of us? People should understand that their story is important. What has happened to everyone is important and that鈥檚 why this project is important.鈥�