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Share your story of navigating life during COVID-19

  • November 24, 2020
UAB hopes to gather the stories of students, faculty, staff and health care workers during the COVID-19 era and document them for historical purposes.

Editor's Note: The information published in this story is accurate at the time of publication. Always refer to uab.edu/uabunited for UAB's current guidelines and recommendations relating to COVID-19.



The COVID-19 era has challenged all of us in many ways. During the last several months, we have had to learn new things, change the way we do things or stop doing familiar things altogether, all while keeping an appropriate distance from each other and taking extreme health precautions.

During the pandemic, you may have recorded personal accounts, photographed your hardships and coping mechanisms, or kept diary entries of your unique outlook on the events. What if the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as a community, could collect and preserve these materials for the benefit of future generations?

covid story.3Photography: Andrea MabryDocumenting COVID-19 at UAB

UAB Libraries and University Relations seek to gather the stories of UAB students, faculty, staff and health care workers navigating life during COVID-19. This is an era-defining medical event, and the university wants to document it for historical purposes. Suggestions for submissions include such topics as daily life during the stay-at-home order, social distancing, the transition to remote working and learning, providing health care to those infected with COVID-19, and first-hand experiences with the infection. This is an important time in UAB history — and we know the UAB community can provide a wide range of experiences for this collection.

Submissions

UAB is asking for digital submissions of original written accounts (narratives, blog postings, poetry, diary entries, etc.), photographs, artwork, and video and audio recordings documenting the UAB COVID-19 experience. The file size limit for the submission form below is 100MB.  

Submission of non-digital formats will be postponed until the libraries are open to receive them. Therefore, at this time, submissions should be in digital formats. 

As the plan is to add individual submissions to a COVID-19 collection in the UAB Digital Collections website, participants will be asked to accept a deed-of-gift to transfer the material to UAB and a media release form that allows UAB to use the material in print and online publications. However, the media release is not a requirement for submission, and if permission is not granted, your submission will still be preserved for research and archival purposes.

What UAB looks like during COVID-19

During the global pandemic, UAB may look a little different, but it continues to educate students and serve the community through its health care, research and programs.

Finally, participants are asked to ensure that no personally identifiable patient information is disclosed, in compliance with HIPAA laws. 

For additional information or questions, or if you are concerned about your file size going over the 100MB limit, contact Anna Kaetz at akaetz95@uab.edu

Ready to submit a project? Fill out the online form