Abstract
UNLV Libraries Collection of Digital Communication about COVID-19 in Las Vegas (2020-2021) contain digital materials documenting the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection materials include archived websites, Twitter data, and official emails sent to the UNLV campus community.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
UNLV Libraries Collection of Digital Communication about COVID-19 in Las Vegas (2020-2021) contain digital materials documenting the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and in Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection materials include archived websites, Twitter data, and official emails sent to the UNLV campus community.
Access Note
The archived websites in Series I are available for access at https://archive-it.org/collections/13650. The public Tweet identifiers in Series II and email messages in Series III are available for access through the Special Collections and Archives Portal. At this time, Tweet identifiers can be used to reconstitute the datasets via Twitter’s API with the “hydrate” function of twarc. In accordance with Twitter's Terms of Service, the full dataset of Twitter data is accessible only to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Data can be used for educational purposes. IP-restricted access is provided via UNLV University Libraries. Visit the Special Collections and Archives Reading Room located on the third floor of the Lied Library to receive a direct transfer of files. For specific questions, please contact special.collections@unlv.edu.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into three series:
I. Web archives, 2020-2021;
II. Twitter dataset, 2020-2021;
III. UNLV official emails, 2020.
Biographical / Historical Note
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas closed in-person operations, including class instruction, from March 18 to June 1, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. UNLV gradually resumed campus operations with hybrid classroom instruction for the 2020-2021 academic year. The majority of materials in this collection cover the time period between March 18, 2020 to June 30, 2021 and reflect events such as the initial closure and reopening of non-essential businesses in the Las Vegas Valley, implementation of a mask mandate, and introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Source:
UNLV Libraries Digital Records on COVID-19, 2020-2021. MS-01031. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Preferred Citation
UNLV Libraries Collection of Digital Communication About COVID-19, 2020-2021. MS-01031. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
From 2020-2021 UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives staff collected and curated Twitter data, archived websites, and emails; accession number 2021-115.
Processing Note
The Twitter data was collected by Darnelle Melvin from 2020 to 2021 using a data-mining process deployed from Rapidminer Studio using a developer’s token to access Twitter's standard search API. Recent Tweets were sampled beginning on March 18, 2020 recursively using the since_id parameter. The since_id parameter returns results with an ID greater than (that is, more recent than) a specific ID. A UTF-8, URL-encoded search query was constructed and sent using various search strings, then filtered by a 100 mile radius around Clark County, Nevada.
Archived websites were selected by UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives staff and then captured, preserved, and managed using Archive-It, a web archiving subscription service. Tammi Kim managed website captures from 2020-2021. Emails were selected and saved as PDF pages by Tammi Kim in 2020. In 2021, Tammi Kim created the finding aid in ArchivesSpace.