British Library to launch email archive
Last Updated: 7:28am BST 03/05/2007Millions of emails are to be stored at the British Library in a unique project to preserve present day communications for future generations, it was announced today. Microsoft is joining forces with the library to collect a million entries for the "email Britain" archive. Emails have become the main form of communication for many people, and the idea is to capture blunders, complaints, humour, romance and other topics. John Tuck, the head of British Collections at the British Library, said: "Email has, in many respects, replaced traditional forms of communications such as letters or memoranda. In the digital age, email has become prevalent in our day-to-day lives. Email Britain will allow us to archive a vast snapshot of our present-day communications and will be of great value for future researchers. "Digital archiving of email has never been attempted before on this scale and we're very excited to be capturing such a rich slice of contemporary life." People are being asked to forward an email to email@emailbritain.co.uk from their inbox or "sent" mail that represents life as they see it today. |
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