Oakland, CA – The Oakland History Center (OHC) of the Oakland Public Library (OPL) is launching the COVID-19 East Bay Community Archive to document life in the East Bay during the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
OHC invites all East Bay residents and those who work in the East Bay to contribute stories, photographs, artwork, documents, correspondences, and more, to build a repository that will help future generations understand how the East Bay handled this challenging time.
“Recording this moment of social upheaval for future generations is vitally important,” according to Dorothy Lazard, head librarian of the Oakland History Center. “Rarely in modern American life will people see such dramatic and sudden social and economic changes as we have seen in the past few months. If the pandemic has brought us anything positive, it has required us to slow down and become more conscious of how we’re living and what we value most. Preserving these stories, observations, and images will help future generations understand how we survived and rebuilt our community.”
Submissions can be made online by visiting www.oaklandlibrary.org/covid-19archive. OHC is accepting initial submissions through December 31, 2020.
For questions, please email eanswers@oaklandlibrary.org.