To the Editor:

The New York State Library, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Division is inviting state residents to participate in its COVID-19 Personal Initiative.  As town historian for Guilderland, I urge residents to keep journals and record memories and experiences through this collective crisis, and then consider donating the journals to the state library at a later date.

I believe the New York State Library has the expertise and facilities to best handle and care for the valuable journals documenting this most unusual time. If you are able, please visit the library’s website for many tips to get yourself started - http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/covid19/.

In addition, if you happen to live in Schenectady County, please consider participating in the Schenectady County Historical Society’s COVID-19 Archive Project.  Like the New York State Library, the historical society has the facilities and expertise to manage this scale of a project. If you are able, please visit the society’s website for an outline of its project: https://schenectadyhistorical.org/event/help-schs-build-an-archive-of-covid-19-stories/

If you prefer to retain your journals for yourself, your ancestors, or possibly as donations to the town some years down the road, that is certainly a good option too. If you are recording your experiences on paper and also keeping photographs, try to store them away from direct sunlight (windows), dampness, high heat or humidity (no garages, basements, and attics), or extreme fluctuations in temperature.

If you are storing your journals and photographs electronically, be sure to back them up and change formatting as needed.

Still wondering why you should start a journal?

The value of starting a journal is not always evident. It takes some time, and you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to do it — on paper? online? both?

Since the onset of the coronavirus, have any of you wondered how regular people handled past epidemics (1918 flu, polio, etc.) and what their lives were like?

That is why you keep a journal. So that someday, 25, 50, or more than 100 years from now, there is some documentation by regular, everyday people describing their experiences as they happened. People will be interested in how this extremely difficult period in history was handled. (It’s a bit cathartic too.)

Need a little help getting started? Take a look at your calendar and the month of March. Did it change?  Look at your emails and texts. Did the contents and conversations change?

What is your first memory that there was a real disruption happening? How did you feel, and what was your initial reaction? I hope that gets you started.

A word, a phrase, multiple paragraphs, drawings, paintings, photographs — there is no wrong answer — just make note of your experiences in ways that are best for you. Our memories fade over time, and our future communities will be grateful that you took the time to capture your experiences.

Stay safe, stay calm, and take care.

Ann Wemple-Person

Historian

Town of Guilderland