Collecting Policy
Overview:
Archivists in UNO Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections started developing a collecting policy ad hoc through responding to emails and preparing for media opportunities in the early weeks of the pandemic in spring 2020. Here we formalize a collecting policy for the Documenting COVID-19 Project.
Archives & Special Collections will collect material from these groups:
- Students/student workers
- Faculty and Staff
- Community Members, with a concerted effort toward voices that have been previously ignored in archives and the historical record.
Archives & Special Collections will acquire:
- Journals and copies/scans from sections of journals
- one-time or multiple reflective writings
- photographs and photo essays
- videos
- drawings, plays, and other creative works
- emails from local businesses
Archives & Special Collections won’t acquire:
- Artifacts and objects better suited for a museum repository, such as masks, clothing, and business signs.
- Material unrelated to Omaha and Nebraska. We will also put potential donors in contact with a more appropriate repository, if possible. For example, Lincoln-related material to the UNL Archives.
Archives & Special Collections will accept the following formats:
- Writings: paper, DOC, PDF
- Photographs: prints, scrapbooks, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD
- Audio files: MP3, WAV, and possibly WMA, AAC/M4A, etc., depending on discussions with donor
- Video files: MP4, AVI, and possibly WMV and others, depending on discussions with donor
How will people access material in this collection?
Depending on copyright and donor restrictions specified in donor agreements, users will be able to see material in the Archives & Special Collections Reading Room at Criss Library and on this website.
--Created April 2020