This guide is designed to help inspire archivists and special collections librarians to connect with their local communities to document current events in real-time, ranging from living documents and digital collections to the collection of physical materials to be added into permanent collections.

While the world was shutting down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic it became clear that we needed to be able to still make connections and reach out to our patrons. Many events have occurred that need to be documented for future researchers, but as closures continued new methods over connection had to be formed.