The State Historical Society is documenting how Missourians are experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Please consider submitting your story, journal, poetry, artwork, photos, and video to SHSMO’s online portal so future historians, students, and other researchers will better understand this historic moment. How has the pandemic affected your life? Your job? Your school and community?

The Documenting COVID-19 in Missouri Collection will relate the experiences and observations of Missourians who are in self-isolation, working essential jobs, working from home or may have lost their job because of the pandemic. SHSMO would like to hear from those who are willing to share their personal medical experiences during this time. SHSMO wants to include stories on how families are dealing with homeschooling or teaching online and how Missourians are coping with the loss of many important and everyday activities in their lives.

Digital materials can be submitted online in a variety of formats. Writing prompts are available on the website if you need ideas on how your story can contribute to the collection. A physical mailing address is also listed for those with items they prefer to mail rather than send through the online portal. Contributors to the COVID-19 collection may remain anonymous or include their name with the material donated. They may request that their donated material be restricted from public access until a later date. Both adults and children (with parent or guardian consent) are encouraged to submit their story.

Submit to COVID-19 collection here.

The University of Missouri Libraries Depository (UMLD) is an off-campus storage facility, established in 1997, for important, but infrequently used, library materials. UMLD is designed to provide high-density storage in an excellent climate controlled environment, maintained at a constant 55°F and at a relative humidity near 40%. This controlled environment ensures that valuable, yet fragile, paper materials will be available for generations to come.

Currently UMLD is at capacity, housing over 1 million items. In addition, the Libraries rent space for around 400,000 additional materials, and there are approximately 600,000 items that need to be transferred from the campus libraries. In order to accommodate these materials, the UM Board of Curators approved an expansion of UMLD.

The conditions in UMLD, as it is currently configured, add an average of 125 years of functional life to the items in the collection. The improved conditions in the new module will push that to an average of 150 years. The expansion includes new receiving, processing and storage areas to support the additional collections. A hook up for an emergency generator will allow the Libraries to maintain the conditions inside the new module even during an extended power outage. Utilities updates also include significant upgrades to the technology infrastructure, which allow for connecting the local security system to the campus system, adding security cameras and installing WiFi.

The expansion of UMLD, will allow the libraries on campus to recover some much needed space that is currently used to house infrequently used materials. A space planning project is currently underway that will help to determine the best use of space in the Libraries. Users will continue to have access to these materials by requesting them through the library catalog or having materials scanned.

On March 12, the first fence was put up at UMLD, marking the beginning of construction. The project is scheduled for completion on February 1, 2021.