Thread by @jburnford

Hello #PandemicMethodologies followers
Erika (@erikadyckhist) and I would like to share an ongoing project we created with Craig Harkema and Tim Harkema to try and preserve some of the more ephemeral experiences of living through #COVID19 in Saskatchewan.
covid19archive.usask.ca/about

Erika did this short promotional video:
@PMTC2021

We've both studied and taught the history of medicine and we wanted to address some of the gaps in traditional archival records. We know the archives will preserve institutional records and the media will provide an amazing source, but they are not focused on everyday experiences

Digital archives create new opportunities to preserve more perspectives. We are inspired by the September 11 Digital Archive: 911digitalarchive.org, the
Hurricane Digital Memory Bank hurricanearchive.org and web archiving projects (particularly @ianmilligan1's work) .

Do you remember March and April 2020? We were stuck at home with kids and spending a lot of time trying to understand COVID 19 online.

How could we capture this ephemeral moment for the future?

This single Tweet and its matching Facebook post is an important moment in the social and political history of the pandemic in Saskatchewan. In the aftermath of all the replies, the government announced the schools were closing the next day.

https://twitter.com/PremierScottMoe/status/1239381165376557061?s=20

So we decided to build an archive and got Craig and Tim from the library to help. We also found some funding to hire students to do some oral interviews.

We had big ambitions. We find ways to fill all the gaps in the record we'd experienced studying and teaching earlier pandemics.

It became clear over the summer that building this archive would take years and not months and more time than we actually had while trying to balance parenting and work during a global pandemic.

At some point, we realized this was a multiyear project and that a lot of people needed the pandemic to end before they could reflect on living through the pandemic.

So here we are, still a little burnt out, with an important project and plans to keep it going with new funding into the future. We are building a team of academics and community members from VIDO scientists to local reporters to help build this archive over the next few years.

Thanks a lot for your interest! Let us know if you have questions or suggestions. Big thanks to the @PMTC2021 organizers!

Correction on the first Tweet. We're not working with brothers. It should have read: Tim Hutchinson!