Wanted: Photos and videos on Covid-19 pandemic for National Museum and NLB records

The National Library Board and the National Museum of Singapore hoped to record the changes people have had to make. PHOTO: NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD

SINGAPORE - People and organisations can from Friday (May 22) 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 joint collection drive on Thursday, 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 have a sense of and record 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 Mr Ng Cher Pong, chief executive officer of NLB.

"We will preserve these collective memories and contributions so that our daily lives during this period can be remembered in the future."

The National Museum's curators and NLB staff have been keeping close tabs on Covid-19 developments since February, documenting important objects and stories, as well as archiving websites and television broadcasts to preserve national memory.

But contributions from the public will present a more complete and richer picture of life in Singapore, they said. Household items or gadgets, hand-sewn masks, and fliers in neighbourhoods thanking delivery riders, for instance, will show aspects of experience that could be neglected by more official sources.

Ms Chung May Khuen, director of the National Museum of Singapore, said: "We invite everyone to share with us their personal perspectives and key objects that tell important stories of Covid-19. These contributions of contemporary Singapore will help build our national collection further and allow future generations to learn about our shared history more vividly."

NLB and the National Museum hope to engage everyone in this project, and are keen to work with organisations and community groups who want to work on similar projects or are already doing so.

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 or the National Museum's site until the end of the year.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.