DULUTH – Don't toss those paper hearts or scrub that sidewalk chalk just yet. Historians studying the COVID-19 pandemic will one day want to see them.

The Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth is looking for submissions to "create a community archive that will preserve the story of this unprecedented time in our community" beyond statistics and news reports.

"What were people thinking and feeling during this time?" the library writes. "What informational materials and public art did they create? How were they helping each other? What did the day-to-day experience of this time look like in Duluth?"

Researchers 100 years from now will want to know — just as we are now looking back a century at the Spanish flu pandemic amid our own outbreak.

The Northeastern Minnesota COVID-19 Community Archive Project will accept an extensive array of documents, photos, videos and audio recordings "that represents individual experiences, and also documentation that represents your community's experience," the library explains.

This includes social media posts, journal entries, art and music, photos of empty store shelves, signs that businesses and churches had to post on their doors, home-school schedules and much more.

The Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth is looking for resident submissions to “create a community archive that will preserve the story of this unprecedented time in our community.”

Northeastern Minnesota residents can learn more and submit materials digitally at https://bit.ly/umdarchive. Questions can be sent to UMD Archives staff at libarchives@d.umn.edu or 218-726-8526.

Brooks Johnson • 218-491-6496