Documenting COVID-19 in Southern Los Angeles County Collection

The Documenting COVID-19 collection (February 2020-May 2021) comprises digital photographs, diaries, artworks, and other materials that were created and submitted by California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) students, faculty, staff, alumni, and Southern Los Angeles County community members. The collection reflects their first-hand experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic that started in March 2020. It includes 102 diaries, essays, and letters (.pdf), 17 blog posts (.pdf), 119 digital photographs (.jpg), 12 videos (.mp4), 1 sound recording (.mp3), 7 artworks (.pdf)(.jpg), 1 poem (pdf), and 3 periodicals (.pdf), and two boxes of Daily Breeze newspaper articles as of May 2021. Diaries were written as assignments for various classes and focused on students' experience with online learning, quarantine with their family, being an essential worker during the pandemic, as well as other changes to their daily life caused by COVID-19. Digital photographs depict the changes to local stores, public gathering places, and signage. Many digital photographs show people wearing masks, social distancing, and the closures of beaches and parks. The videos collected are short clips of what interactions look like taking place at a distance, CSUDH resilience ambassador messages, a video submitted by the CSUDH Asian and Pacific Islanders Graduation Committee regarding a virtual graduation celebration, and a video regarding the launch of a new bachelor's degree in the Asian Pacific Studies department. Blog posts by local community members are about events and changes that took place during the quarantine. Two periodicals describe local news events. One periodical is a study of CSUDH students and their stress and wellbeing during quarantine. There is a single sound recording of an interview that took place with someone who lived in a building where people were not complying with the face mask recommendation. Artwork collected includes a coloring book created by the Queer Culture and Resource Center, as well as student collages, artwork created for the CSUDH SLICE newsletter, and a photograph of artwork created by a faculty member in the CSUDH art department.