{"id":85566,"date":"2020-04-13T08:26:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T12:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=85566"},"modified":"2020-04-13T08:26:25","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T12:26:25","slug":"wright-state-special-collections-and-archives-featured-in-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2020\/04\/13\/wright-state-special-collections-and-archives-featured-in-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State Special Collections and Archives featured in New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Dawne Dewey, head of the Wright State Special Collections and Archives<\/p><\/div>\n

On March 16, Ruth Franklin of Brooklyn tweeted: \u201cToday has been quiet, sort of, so far. Take a moment and make some notes about what\u2019s happening. Call it your Coronavirus diary, your plague journal, whatever. It\u2019s important. Later, you will want a record.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was\u00a0before New York City public schools closed, before\u00a0nonessential workers in New York State were ordered to stay at home. It was\u00a0two days after the first two confirmed New York coronavirus deaths. Now, as the death toll rises and this pandemic stretches on, your observations matter, and jotting down your thoughts and feelings may also help you make sense of them. These are all reasons you should consider starting a coronavirus diary right now, even if you don\u2019t think what you\u2019re seeing, experiencing and feeling is important. It is.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople tend to think that some random person\u2019s daily journal isn\u2019t as important as an exchange of letters between two politicians,\u201d she said. But you never know what impact it may have.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly useful both for us personally and on a historical level to keep a daily record of what goes on around us during difficult times,\u201d said Ms. Franklin, author of\u00a0\u201cShirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life,\u201d\u00a0which won the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. She\u2019s also currently working on a biography of perhaps the most famous diarist of all: Anne Frank.<\/p>\n

Know Your Story Has Value<\/p>\n

Herbert \u201cTico\u201d Braun, professor of history at the University of Virginia, said that just starting can be a challenge, especially for those who aren\u2019t writers. \u201cWe have to convince ourselves that we\u2019re writing something that perhaps other people want or need to read,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the main point of this exercise shouldn\u2019t necessarily be about what other people will think about our thoughts right now. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t matter because we\u2019re writing for ourselves to find out how we feel about things,\u201d he said. He doesn\u2019t even like to call them diaries \u2014 he prefers the term \u201cjottings\u201d instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we write these words, they don\u2019t have to be great. They don\u2019t have to be perfect. We don\u2019t even have to write a complete sentence at first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dawne E. Dewey, head of special collections and archives at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, said that when she talks to people in her community about donating their papers, she often has to convince them. (The Wright State University Libraries\u2019 Special Collections and Archives have asked volunteers to document the pandemic for the library\u2019s records.) They usually tell her that they\u2019re just ordinary people. \u201cSome of the best stories we get are from ordinary people who are experiencing something extraordinary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Dewey has been looking in the archives about what life was like for the Dayton community during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and sees similarities, things like social distancing, the closing of schools, actions by local health departments. \u201cHistorians do use this material,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Record In A Way That Works For You<\/p>\n

Ms. Franklin keeps a notebook with her and writes when she finds something striking or has time: when she\u2019s cooking dinner, when she hears something on NPR, when she\u2019s working at her desk. While she tries to write in her diary multiple times a day (because it\u2019s so easy to forget what happened this morning if you wait to write at night), she isn\u2019t strict about keeping a regular routine. \u201cIt\u2019s important not to create additional stress for yourself at this time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While she likes to keep a paper record because she finds the act of writing soothing, it\u2019s not a requirement. She\u2019s also taking photos and keeping notes on her phone, and saving sections of the newspaper.<\/p>\n

But other options include audio, video, drawing or whatever creative outlet works for you.<\/p>\n

Wright State University has also\u00a0posted questions as prompts for those who don\u2019t know where to start<\/a>. For example:<\/p>\n