What we are looking to collect?

We are looking for individual experiences from the Ashland community (including Ashland University students, faculty, staff, and general community) to add to the Ashland University Archives via The Journal of the Plague Year collection.

Why an Individual Experience?

Everyone is experiencing this pandemic in different ways.  Donations and records of personal experiences will help create a varied record that showcase the unique impacts at Ashland University that can't be seen through formal or University-wide publications.

What could an donation of an individual experience look like?

Right now we are focusing on digital donations which can include:

• Journal entries
• Photographs or brief videos
• Self Interviews
• Creative works (poetry, drawings, comics, etc)
• Social Media posts

Don't know what to include in your submission(s)? Below are some prompts that you can use to start thinking about what you want to submit as a reflection of your experience during this time. 

How is the pandemic affecting you personally?

How is the pandemic affecting the communities you’re part of, and how are those communities responding to it?

Are there voices that are not being heard in our broader national conversation about the pandemic?

What changes have you noticed since the pandemic began?

Can you begin compiling a collection related to the pandemic?

These are just a few of the ways you can engage with the JOTPY archive. The beauty of this archive lies in its flexibility—you can build your submissions completely around your own personal vision and experience. As you plan what to submit, think about the format that will best express what you want to say. Should it be a photograph of something you saw? A video of it? An audio recording of an oral interview with someone? A screen grab of the news or a text thread? A simple written “diary” entry? An image of a newspaper story? The format you choose will affect how your contribution is interpreted by visitors to the JOTPY site.

Thank you for your submissions! If you have any questions, please reach out!

To participate in the Ashland University Archives COVID Collecting project all you need to do is be willing to share your story in whatever form you think appropriate with the Journal of the Plague Year. After you have submitted your donation please make sure to tag Ashland University. This will allow all of the submissions to be collected together. 

Requirements to share your experience for the Ashland University Collection:

• Must be affiliated with Ashland University
• Sign the appropriate donation documents (included in the Journal of the Plague Year submission form)
• Must be your own creation, if others have contributed they must also sign the appropriate documentation for donation

Submission:

All stories/donations are being collected for the Ashland University COVID Collection through the Journal of the Plague Year that is being run and overseen by Arizona State University. As submissions are gathered and tagged with Ashland University there will be a Ashland University Collection where they will all be gathered together. 

Please use the submission form on Journal of the Plague Year and make sure to tag and note your affiliation with Ashland University. You will sign a donation agreement allowing the Archives to preserve your materials, and transfer copyright and information on use of your content.

Please use standard formats such as: Word, pdf, tiff, jpeg, mp3, mp4, mov, m4a.

If two or more people contribute to any donated materials, only one needs to submit the file but everyone who appears or contributed need to be included on the submission form. Without appropriate permissions we cannot add the files to our collection.

The Journal of the Plague Year is a curatorial collaboration that was started and is run by Arizona State University. This repository was created to document, share, and preserve what is happening as we experience a global pandemic. Their collection contains submissions from across the globe. 

The name is a reference to The Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (NOT to be confused with Willem Dafoe). Defoe wrote this fictional account of one man's experience in 1665 London when the Bubonic plague struck the city. If you are interested in reading more you can check out this book (2009 edition) from the AU Library's ebook collection or check it out from the AU Library collection. Check below to connect to this topical book.