Meet Cambridge Lockdown Videos Selected For University’s ‘Collecting COVID-19’ Archive

21 May 2020

Meet Cambridge, the official, free venue-finding service for spaces at the University of Cambridge, its Colleges, hotels and other unique properties in and around the city, has  been supporting its venues during lockdown by checking in on staff at its member venues in a series of video chats.

The videos showing ‘Life In Lockdown’ with staff from Newnham College, Gonville & Caius College, The Hilton Cambridge City Centre, The Møller Institute, Newmarket Racecourses and Corpus Christi College have now been selected to form part of an official archive, ‘Collecting COVID-19’, being compiled by Cambridge University Library which will be available for future generations to learn more about living and working during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Meet Cambridge, which has more than 50 venues in its portfolio, all of which are closed, has been providing support for its members over recent weeks as they deal with the current ban on conferences and meetings and explore ways to re-start their business operations going forward.

The short interviews with Managers include conversations around how they are coping with the lockdown, what their new working day looks like and discussion on the challenges they have faced.

Judith Sloane, Manager at Meet Cambridge said: “In these difficult times, we wanted to engage with our colleagues in our venues in a positive way and to offer a human perspective on what we are all going through. Not only have we received great feedback on these videos, but they will now go into historical records in this official ‘Collecting COVID-19’ archive; it’s fantastic news and we hope people down the years will find them interesting.”

Jacky Cox, Keeper of University Archives added: “In launching this initiative we are keen to document the experience of the Collegiate University and city. How are we all adjusting to new patterns of work, social activity and leisure? Tracing the impact on Cambridge as an international magnet for visitors of all kinds, from College conference operations to occupancy of local hotels, is vital in building the big picture.”

Caption

Judith Sloane, Manager at Meet Cambridge – its lockdown videos will form part of the official ‘Collecting COVID-19’ archive at Cambridge University.

www.meet-cambridge.com

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