BL to start million-item e-mail archive
The rise of the e-mail over the written letter has prompted the British Library to open an archive for the electronic word. The library’s collection of letters, which includes correspondence between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, will be joined by a database of emails submitted by the public.
The venture is designed to take a snapshot of the British public’s writing habits. The archive is designed to hold more than a million emails. Curators at the library hope to capture blunders, complaints, humour, romance and other topics including ''tales from abroad''.
A spokeswoman for the project said that all emails submitted would be included, provided that they were not derogatory or advertising. Members of the public would be able to access the archive from terminals at the British Library, although names of individuals and companies would be witheld for 100 years.
Read entire article at Times (of London)
The venture is designed to take a snapshot of the British public’s writing habits. The archive is designed to hold more than a million emails. Curators at the library hope to capture blunders, complaints, humour, romance and other topics including ''tales from abroad''.
A spokeswoman for the project said that all emails submitted would be included, provided that they were not derogatory or advertising. Members of the public would be able to access the archive from terminals at the British Library, although names of individuals and companies would be witheld for 100 years.