Public asked to share COVID-19 experiences
Feb. 27—PLATTSBURGH — Share your COVID-19 Pandemic stories, photographs and videos with the world through the online portal of "Leaving Our Fingerprints on History Project."
It was initially designed by the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) in April 2020 to build community while area residents were sheltering in place, according to a news release.
It has since grown to encompass Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System, as well as other library systems across the state, including Finger Lakes Library System, Northern New York Library System, and the Chautauqua Cattaraugus Library System.
What started as a local initiative quickly expanded as submissions were received from people across the state, then across the country, and even across the world — including Canada, England and India.
ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY
Anja Bouchard, coordinated outreach librarian at Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System, found the project by accident.
"I was exploring the Southern Adirondacks Library Systems website (https://fingerprints.sals.edu/) looking for contact information for something else, and I saw that they had the Leaving Our Fingerprints project," she said.
"It really caught my attention. I thought this was just a fantastic thing to do because this pandemic is really impacting everyone around the world and wouldn't it be wonderful to capture people's personal experiences while it's happening, while everything is still fresh in their minds."
How has COVID-19 impacted our daily lives?
That's the question that area libraries are exploring through the Leaving Our Fingerprints on History project, a crowd-sourced, first person account of history.
"We have a whole list of questions that are included, but there is also the opportunity to share images and even video clips," Bouchard said.
"We have a unique opportunity here to gather this information during this pandemic. When I reached out to them, I wanted to duplicate the project.
"They were very supportive about it and then all of sudden they said, 'You know what rather than you recreating all of this, why don't you join us? We can set up with the links and everything, and it will all just feed into the same spread sheets and we will have more information and it will all be together.'
JOIN HISTORY
Visit https://cefls.org/fingerprints to be a part of this historic project by answering a few questions.
People can choose to answer all or some of the questions posed. Participants are also encouraged to upload pictures or artwork that they would like to share. All information collected will be anonymous and the website will be archived for future generations.
"What is happening with this information, it's all being presented where people can explore it on a website," Bouchard said.
"What we've done with that particular website is anyone can explore it. You can search in various ways. When you go in to visit the actual site, you can browse the stories, and you can browse by tags because all the people that have been involved in the project have been tagging the entries with certain subject terms.
"There's also just a general search. You can put in any key word and see what comes back. There's even a map. When you load that and click on the numbers, you can zero in on a certain location where entries have been submitted from. So that's kind of a really interesting feature as well."
CURATED EXHIBITS
A new website feature allows visitors to browse by exhibit.
"All of us who have been working on this together, we've been collecting the stories that have a similar theme to them and creating these exhibits," Bouchard said.
"The two that are up there right now, there's one on family. What it means to be a family during the COVID-19 Pandemic and then education. What we learn because of and despite the pandemic. You can click those and see all the stories that mentioned different concepts about family or education in this case."
The project is working on more exhibits, which will come online as the curation process moves along.
"If you look at family and what we miss, it's interesting to see the variety of submissions that we have," she said.
"People are talking about the events and the celebrations that they've missed because of the pandemic. They are just telling their stories about that."
There is an image of a small child speaking to her grandmother virtually and another of a gentleman who cut his own hair.
"You can see the big jagged line," Bouchard said.
"He's like 'Yeah, I don't recommend that.' There's humor. There's the real touching stories. It's just a whole variety and gambit.
"I guess why it meant so much to me when I saw it I guess when the reality of the pandemic and it was going to impact us as well, when it really started to hit, I was noticing posts on social media that said we are all in the same boat. It was a great concept because you know we wanted to show that togetherness and support for each other."
"NOT ALL IN SAME BOAT'
Then, Bouchard saw another post that stated "We are weathering the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat."
"And that is true because when I saw that it just hit me that's exactly it," she said.
"These stories really show that. You can see other stories, and you feel connections to other people, but you also see experiences that are different than yours."
The project will be a great resource for generations to come.
"We look at the information we have from the Spanish flu," Bouchard said.
"This is going to be informative and something that generations beyond us will look back on and understand what it was like living through this pandemic."
When Easter 2020 rolled around, some people were frustrated they couldn't find the perfect candy for their loved one's Easter baskets.
There were other families who worried how they would eat.
"We're all going through this same experience but in different ways and our challenges are different," she said.
"This really makes a wonderful attempt of capturing that."
20 QUESTIONS
Questions include: What you wish you had known before this all happened? What would you want future generations to know about this?
"There are 20 questions total," Bouchard said.
"We are trying to encourage people to send images. We don't have as many as those and those are what really makes these stories come alive and provide that connection even more.
The initial survey was intended for adults 18 and older.
"We decided we also wanted to create a survey for younger folks to have the questions zero in more on their situation," she said.
"So we now have that available as well. We had a couple of individuals on the team who had young people review the questions ahead of time to make sure it really spoke to their situation and their needs."
One of the questions asked what do you miss the most as a result of this pandemic?
"One individual who was reviewing the questions for us responded, 'Well, I guess it's really not about missing things because there were things I never was able to experience before," Bouchard said.
"So, I can't miss that. But what did the pandemic take away from me? It took away from me my senior trip. It took away my senior prom. It took away my graduation at least in that it would normally be held and the celebrations that would have gone on along with that.'"
Bouchard found the reviewer's statement very powerful.
"We ended up changing that question to what did the pandemic take away from you?" she said.
"It just suddenly put you in their mindset and their frame of reference and how this has impacted their lives. The more people that contribute the better outcome we have and the variety will be very interesting. "
For more information about this project, visit https://cefls.org/fingerprints-info or email abouchard@cefls.org.
Email Robin Caudell:
Twitter:@RobinCaudell
