Formerly a student staff employee in the U of M's Performing Arts Archives, Joseph Moen brings prior research experience and a strong measure of enthusiasm to the work, as helps researchers uncover and use material deep in the archives.

World War I, the Great Depression, and immigration all contributed to a growing number of people who were unattached — unmarried and not linked to communities in significant ways. To study these single people, most of whom were men, Doris Brossard, a doctoral student of modern U.S. history, gender, and women’s history at Rutgers University, recently came to the University Libraries to access the Social Welfare History Archives and the Kautz Family YMCA Archives.

Collecting materials about the University’s response to COVID is not only important, "It's critical," says Professor Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. “If we are not to repeat ourselves, we best learn from this information,” says Osterholm, an infectious-disease expert, best-selling author, frequent news source, and member of then President-elect Joe Biden's Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.