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FAQ

The Rhode Island COVID-19 Archive was launched in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and was closed to submissions on June 30, 2023. The site and all contributions will be preserved by Providence Public Library and Rhode Island Historical Society.

Who started this project and why? 

Rhode Island Historical Society and Providence Public Library have partnered to create a collaborative public archive in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rhode Island COVID-19 Archive project encourages all Rhode Islanders to document their experience during this historic moment and to contribute those items to this public archive. If you have questions about this project, please contact us.  

What should I contribute?

We are happy to accept any materials that reflect your experiences with COVID-19 in Rhode Island. You'll see a range of formats and points of view represented in our collection: written reflections, photographs, zines, art, music, puppetry, and more. We ask that you contribute only materials that you've created or had some part of creating, and that you let other individuals who co-created or are depicted in your contributions know that you're planning to share these items with us and that the materials will be publicly accessible.

Do you want pictures of protests?

We view the protests and forms of activism that have emerged in recent months as essential dimensions of the experience of COVID-19, which have highlighted societal inequalities. That being said, we acknowledge that photographs and other formats can be (and have been) used in surveillance efforts designed to prosecute, harass, or harm protestors and activists. We ask that you do not share images or identifying information of individuals who have not consented to adding photos of themselves to a public digital archive, and that you review the Terms and Conditions for making contributions.

If you have questions or concerns about a particular contribution related to protests, activism, or other materials, please email us!

What happens to my contribution after I submit it?   

Once you submit a contribution, the project managers are alerted to review the item. As long as it meets the terms and conditions of the project, it will be approved and published to the site. The project managers will not edit the item you submit, however, we may add tags or descriptive information so that it's easier to find when visitors search the site. 

Decisions Around Language

We believe that words matter. The way you’ve described your contribution to the site is as much a part of your submission as the digital file you submitted. We want to protect your voice and won’t change the description you’ve submitted. Curators may provide additional description in order to provide context to submissions for future researchers and to support sensitivity to social and cultural issues. When a curator adds description to your submission, it will be clear. The language we use on this site is informed by conversations within our profession as well as our Statement of Values.

Language is always changing. We are paying attention to cultural conversations about words and grammar especially related to social & cultural identity, bias and hidden prejudice. We are always learning and will address edits as needed. If you’d like to ask us more, feel free to contact us!

Who owns the items I submit? What can site users do with them? 

We ask you to submit your items under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0). That means that you still own the copyright and can do what you like with your own content (maybe you want to sell "Greetings from Covid-RI" postcards or you want to publish your journal after this is all done.)  But you also agree to share the rights to your content so that anyone who visits the site can utilize the item as long as they acknowledge, or attribute, that you created it.  Additionally, you're giving RIHS and PPL the rights to archive your items for historical research in perpetuity. The full ground rules for contributing to the site can be read here. 

Can another organization or creative project make submissions? 

YES! We encourage other community organizations in Rhode Island that have been collecting reactions to COVID-19 to contribute to this site as a collection! Some examples of collections could include:

If you'd like to host a collection, please contact one of the project managers.       

If I have a large number of items to submit, do I need to submit them individually?  

We will need you to provide individual titles, descriptions and other details for each individual item you submit. However, if you've got a large number of items, please email one of the project managers and we can work with you to get us the files and descriptive information in a batch. 

What if I see something on the site that I believe violates my copyright or privacy rights?

Please contact us! Given that this is a crowdsourced archive, we cannot control all aspects of the material coming in, so we want to hear from you if you think something should be taken down. In the case of a suspected copyright violation, there are clear procedures to follow based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of US law. You can read our DMCA policy here. If you have privacy (or other non-copyright) concerns related to materials in the archive, please email us at rica@rihs.org with an explanation and links to the specific item(s).

What types of file formats can I submit?

The site can accept almost any type of digital file format, but the below work best. The upload file size limit is 256MB, so if you have something bigger, please contact us.

How do I cite items that I see on the site?

You should adapt it to fit whatever standard citation format you are using, but we consider the following template to include all appropriate information:

Here's an example of what that would look like: