|
|
|
How your emails can make literary history
Haroon Siddique
THE BRITISH Library wants your spam, reflections on last night's match and personal gripes for a contemporary Domesday Book.
All this month the Euston Road institution is asking people to send in their emails to create an historic record of life in May 2007.
And the categories range from life changing emails to humour, and from love and romance to spam (of the non Monty Python variety).
Jonnie Robinson, the library's curator of socio linguistics and education, said: "We have no idea of the breadth of what we'll get but that's one of the exciting things.
"There'll be reflections on world events, the local election results. There'll be emails flying about Manchester United's defeat against AC Milan, office jokes and applications for jobs.
"We see it as a time capsule, hopefully it can be a snapshot of British culture, work and family life."
Contributors can create an email specially or just send in correspondence from their inbox or sent box.
The library hopes to receive millions of emails. All eligible correspondence will be recorded in its archive and the top 100 will be published in a book.
Mr Robinson said: "Just as we have archived papers and journals we wanted to tap into modern means of communication. This is the first attempt to create a record of British life by email.
"The project's future use is probably more so than now and from a linguist point of view I am interested in how email is very different from traditional written forms."
The British Library holds copies of every book and journal published in the UK so the growth of electronic information has had a major impact on its work.
Mr Robinson said: "It has amazing implications for shelf space. We now receive stuff in electronic form although that can create difficulties as technology changes, for example CD Roms are not used much these days."
While emails may not have the romance of a handwritten journal or a musty leather-bound book, Mr Robinson believes they may provoke the same nostalgia in the future.
"I suspect what's going to be happening in 200 years is people will look back at archived pieces such as PlayStation 2 and think what a wonderfully antiquated way of interacting.
"An email may be considered in the same way as when we receive a hand written letter now."
The 21st Century Domesday Book will be accessible through the library's reading room and could be ready by November, depending on the number of emails received.
Email Britain is being run with Windows Live Hotmail. For information on how to submit an email you can visit the website
www.newhotmail.co.uk/
emailbritain.
haroon.siddique@hamhigh.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|