British Library Starts Email Archive

sushi writes "Australian IT is reporting that 'The British Library is creating an archive to store the emails of the nation's top authors and scientists, as the written word is replaced by electronic messages.' A spokeswoman says it welcomes emails from prominent people in all walks of life. "We want people with a canon of work behind them," she says. The article also talks of the need to read data from (now) obsolete computing platforms..."

Comments

First

[Anonymous Coward]

As the first post, I welcome my mail to be submitted to this archive...

"obsolute" computing platforms?

[TAGmclaren]

ok, who let that one through? :)

Maybe I could help...

[Anonymous Coward]

I could send them my punch card reader. I still keep some of my best pr0n on those cards.

New email comes to light

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Tony

It doesn't matter. we're not going into Eyeraq
for the Weapons. We're after the oil....

George

>Dear George
>
>Do we really have the evidence to go to war in
>the middle east? I only ask becuase our
>intelligence people aren't really sure enough.
>
>Could it be that we're making a mistake?
>
>RSVP
>
>Tony

Re:New email comes to light

[Begemot]

You've probably misreaded, the article says "canon of work" not "work of cannons".

Re:As a scientist I'd just like to say

[richy freeway]

I think you'll be OK. They did say TOP scientists. ;) :P

Example email

[I7D]

>>>Light is a wave! I can prove it.
>> No its not, light is a particle! I can prove it
> You ninny!

At first thought, a bad idea.

[tod_miller]

Then I thought of the Salmon of Doubt, the book of the scraps of electronic data found on Douglas Adams HDD. But his emails?

Yes letters can be well penned, but is every author going to vainly CC: their emails to a library?

Should they be digitally signed? Oh lawks, Micheal Jackson just emailed me and asked if he could use my toilet [goonies]

Seems dumb to me. Email is such a throw-away medium.

If Shakespeares SMS's were saved, would be citing:

2 b r !2b tat s da qsn, wthr ts noblr n da mnd to sffr da slngs n arws f owtragos frtne,r 2 tk rms agnst a c f trbls n bi opresing, nd dem.

Email is for email. Anyone know any good librarian pr0n sites?

Re:At first thought, a bad idea.

[general_re]

Seems dumb to me. Email is such a throw-away medium.

What are you talking about? I'm not famous yet, but I do have a "canon of work" behind me - I am the author of such instant classics as The Xerox Will Be Offline From 3-5 PM Today and Your Workstation Is Scheduled For Replacement On 4/22 and Can't Meet You For Lunch Today, Something's Come Up Here. Someday schoolchildren will study these, that's how important and eternal they are...

Re:An obvious choice

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry. He's on the list. Any future email from Douglas Adams will be archived and stored in a secure chamber deep below the earth's crust. We've got Tolkein's address watched too (elfluva@hotmail.com BTW).

Re:Let History Decide

[polecat_redux]

Dear Eva,

I was pleased to see you at the potluck last night. Your casserole was fabulous - you'll simply have to share the recipe with me sometime.

The Schmidts seem like very nice people. It's so wonderful to see such a happily married couple these days. I really do wish them all the best.

Are we still on for the motor trip up to the city this weekend? I know this great little place that I think you'll just love. Anyway, I hope to hear from you soon.

Lovingly yours,

Adolf

Re:Let History Decide

[blowdart]

It would probably be a good idea for them to accept email from EVERYONE and sort through it later.

Lets see;

• Spam
• Email from mother
• Spam
• Email from porn site subscribed to
• Spam
• Email form mother asking why you haven't replied
• Spam
• Rejection email from craigslist casual encounters
• Spam
• Email laughing at the penis pic you posted on craigslist
• Spam
• Email from your mother asking why you sent her a penis picture
• Chain mail

A good idea? Really?!

Already been done

[close_wait]

I'm sure the NSA already has copies of all emails ever written, so the British Library just needs to ask them nicely....