Building and Using a Collection: Personal Narratives of the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic—Lessons Learned and Next Steps

UCLA Library Special Collections’ “Collection of Personal Narratives, Manuscripts, and Ephemera about the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic” (Manuscript Collection no. 509, or Biomed.0509) was built from scratch beginning a decade before the pandemic’s centenary. In years BCE (Before COVID Era), the collection was used by researchers and classes. During the COVID-19 Era, we shared content with newspapers and developed a public lecture for audiences ranging from UCLA’s Powell Society to the New York Academy of Medicine. This talk will profile the collection’s development, share lessons learned from its use, and consider and seek suggestions on next steps in exhibition, digitization, and curriculum integration