The Pandemic Diaries

The New York Public Library (NYPL) has started a new initiative that invites New Yorkers to submit audio recordings of themselves or their loved ones telling personal stories about life during the era of COVID-19. The project, The Pandemic Diaries, will be comprised of audio files archived in NYPL’s Research Libraries—the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts—to be preserved and made available to future scholars, journalists, students, and the public.

The Pandemic Diaries Project is looking for reflections on a number of relevant topics, including families and parenting, essential workers, life in quarantine, protests for racial justice, mutual aid, community organizations, and much more. Interested contributors can submit their audio recording via an online form that the NYPL has set up here. You can also view a general FAQ about submitting media here. File collection will end on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 and the NYPL will reassess the project for future submissions.

Photo credit: NYPL