I propose to discuss a resource I created during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic together with my academic community and the wider public: “Journal of a Plague Year: Brooklyn College” (JOTPY). This online archive is hosted by the University of Arizona in partnership with Brooklyn College, which has its own branch. JOTPY began in early 2020 and continues to take in public archival submissions on a large scale.
As a technologist for Brooklyn College Library, I served for a time as the BC archive’s primary curator, and worked extensively with its content, structure and presentation. This archive has raised fascinating questions about collaboration among and within institutions, along with discussions of privacy, standards of curating, and strategies to show media to best advantage. The aspect of this effort most impressive to me is its collective yet individual nature. A joint effort across multiple academic institutions, the JOTPY archive also involved large-scale collaborative curating of submissions. The rigorous curating and editing process allows diverse JOTPY archives to maintain their individual character, yet be smoothly reconciled into the overall collection of hundreds of thousands of continuing pandemic stories. I am frequently moved or drawn into the content of individual stories people tell of their experiences, small and large, during this continuing pandemic.
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