People and organisations can from today send in videos, photographs and journal entries that capture their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, as part of the country's efforts to archive the everyday impact of the coronavirus on society.
Launching the collection drive yesterday, the National Library Board (NLB) and the National Museum of Singapore described what Singaporeans are going through as an "extraordinary period" and "a key historical moment".
Through the project, they said, they hoped to record and have a sense of the changes people have had to make, from modifying the way they celebrate birthdays to the way they exercise, particularly during the circuit breaker period.
"The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event in Singapore's and in the world's history. Our 'Documenting Covid-19 in Singapore' collection drive invites the community to work with us to develop a collection that documents this national experience," said NLB chief executive Ng Cher Pong.
National Museum curators and NLB staff have kept close tabs on Covid-19 developments since February, documenting important objects and stories, as well as archiving websites and television broadcasts.
But contributions from the public will present a more complete and richer picture of life in Singapore, they said. Household items or gadgets, masks sewn by hand and fliers thanking delivery riders, for instance, will show aspects of experiences that could be neglected by more official sources.
NLB is looking for videos, audio recordings, photographs, fliers, posters, blogs, journals and diaries, while the National Museum is collecting images of objects and their accompanying stories, after which the museum will follow up on suitable entries to collect the objects.
The collection may be featured in future exhibitions presented by the National Museum, and will be catalogued and made publicly available through NLB's eResource platforms for research.
People can contribute their entries at NLB's dedicated webpage (https://go.gov.sg/documenting-covid19) or the National Museum's site (https://go.gov.sg/nms-ccs-covid19) until the end of the year.
