Data for the Community Pandemic Accounts Project

On March 10, the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Michigan. Since then, there have been many changes to everyday life, such as the "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order urging Michiganders to limit contact with others. The Western Michigan University Libraries conducted a data collection/history project that serves to understand how our regional community has been coping and adapting to these changes. The University community’s personal memories and experiences will provide a more nuanced view into these unprecedented times, while basic demographics will serve to contextualize their experiences. Collected accounts are primarily disseminated as a publicly available de-identified dataset for researchers to better understand pandemic impacts during this time period, and as a historical artifact through the Zhang Archive in 2025 that connects names to accounts. This dataset contains two files, a deidentified csv and a plain text README file with variable descriptions.