The Manitoba COVID-19 Outbreak Collection created by the University of Manitoba Libraries in collaboration with the University of Winnipeg Archives preserves and makes accessible archived web content related to Manitoba's response to the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) global outbreak. This collection documents the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic on the province, which saw its first cases on March 12, 2020. Identification of relevant web content began in March 2020, shortly after the first cases were reported in Manitoba. Initial web crawling began in April 2020 and the collection is updated as needed throughout the duration of the pandemic. The content crawled by the University of Manitoba Libraries includes websites related to agriculture (farming, food producers, and related organizations), arts and culture (performing and fine arts organizations, companies, and associations), business, trades, and technology (establishments, companies, corporations, skilled labour, and organizations that promote economic development and innovation), education (early childhood education, elementary and secondary schools and school divisions, as well as post-secondary institutions), emergency services (police, firefighting, and paramedic services, and associations that represent them), entertainment and recreation services (local events, as well as leisure, tourism and hospitality services), and government (provincial and municipal levels, and crown corporations). It should be noted that the University of Manitoba and University of Winnipeg websites are not included in the crawled websites as they are routinely crawled by the respective institutions. The University of Winnipeg Archives have further documented websites relating to galleries, libraries, archives, and museums, health and wellness, Indigenous organizations, labour and unions, media and communications, religious organizations, and social work and services.
