Our Lives, Our Stories

What is your Hometown Story?

The Sangamon Experience is teaming up with the Sangamon County Bicentennial Commission to record stories from Sangamon County residents. We want many voices involved in telling the story of Sangamon County. Your voice, and your video, can help tell the story of our area of Illinois. The story is not complete without YOU.

Ready to get started? We need your video, and your permission to use it!

If you have any questions about the project feel free to email Sangamon Experience Director and Curator Anne Moseley at asutt4@uis.edu

COVID-19 Project

The Sangamon Experience is seeking to record and preserve the personal responses of University of Illinois at Springfield students, faculty, and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. While official responses to this unprecedented event will be collected by the University Archives, we want to ensure the inclusion of personal experiences and reactions in our collections. Help us gather this important information by participating in this project.

How to contribute:

• The Sangamon Experience will accept journal and diary entries, emails, photographs, videos, audio recordings, social media posts, and other digital documentation. Materials should document remote learning and work, displacement from student housing, social distancing, self-quarantine, and/or the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the donor.
• All perspectives regarding the COVID-19 pandemic experience are welcome, however, wantonly inaccurate and/or blatantly false materials and information may not be eligible for inclusion. The Sangamon Experience reserves the right to not accept or retain all donations.
  The Sangamon Experience is currently only accepting donations from University of Illinois at Springfield students, faculty, and staff.
• You must be the sole creator of the content you are donating.
  Please note that, unless otherwise discussed with Sangamon Experience staff, any materials documenting your personal experience will be made available for research at the time this collection is processed.
• Please note that deposited materials created in the course of official University business may be subject to UIS Archives restrictions and will be handled accordingly.
• Anyone who appears in an audio or video recording, including the donor, must sign an oral history release form for any oral histories (audio or video) you donate. The Sangamon Experience will contact you to complete the appropriate paperwork. If the Sangamon Experience does not receive releases from you and all other participants the materials cannot be preserved.
• We advise you to save and submit your personal social media posts as screen grabs (JPEGs). These captures can be created on your mobile device (tablet or smartphone) or computer. This recommendation is based on considerations of the privacy of donors’ personal data that may be included in any downloads of your social media archive from the platforms themselves (e.g.
  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), and the rapid response nature of this collecting period.
  Please do not donate medical records or official student records (such as completed class assignments).

If you are interested in participating contact: UIS Sangamon Experience sangamonexperience@uis.edu