Tuesday 16 November 2010

...for my family...


Have you heard of the UK Web Archive?
It is a project sponsored by the British Library
to preserve a selection of UK websites.

Last week I was thrilled to get two emails
telling me that
The Magpie Files
and
...the sight of morning...
have been selected for archiving.

It means that these websites will be safe
and the written history of our family
available to my children for the forseeable future
in the format that it was designed for.

The opportunity is also of wider significance
because the blogs will act as a window
into the minutiae of family life
at the start of this century
and will be a potential resource for research.
I love the idea of being part of
the tradition of family archives
that goes back to the Paston Letters and beyond .

It is not just about me and my writing...
the website is captured as a whole piece of work
which means that all of your wonderful comments
will be preserved for posterity.
Even MrM's comments.

It is an exciting project to be part of
and I would urge you to nominate
your own blog for archiving
so that there is wider representation
of our amazing blogging community.
I really don't want to mislead
the researchers of the future into thinking
that everyone in the early 21st century
lived their lives surrounded by
blue and white china.

31 comments:

  1. oh.
    alice.
    this is incredible. absolutely. wonderful.
    oh.
    I am smiling here. Right now.

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  2. Now I know !

    And can now do a proud,happy dance over here for my friend Alice

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  3. gosh Alice, I looked at the list of blogs, you stand alongside Alistair Campbell, the Duchess of Devonshire and some teapots to name but a few.
    you must be over the moon. celebratory coffee cake don't you think Mr M x

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  4. That is splendid news, especially as letters tied in ribbon and photo albums will be so scarce. I wish my wv had been 'posterity.' Instead it is 'piontic' which still has a nice cyber ring about it.

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  6. What an accomplishment.
    I just need to focus more on my comments ... must be charming, witty, smart ...
    Congrats!

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  7. Well, how perfectly thrilling! (But some of us will have to improve our standards of Commenting.)

    Entirely deserved, too - such a delight to read, your clear, spare prose, with lovely photos too. Well done!

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  8. Do you know what? I am not at all surprised. Your blog is wonderful but it is your skill at capturing a moment of thoughts, a glimpse of observations, a snatch of conversations.....that really earns a place like this wonderful honour. Well done, I say, well done.

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  9. I deleted my previous comment due to spelling mistake.... Oops! Gone all nervous now.........

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  10. I always knew you belonged to a different set.

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  11. I love family archives and delving in to the past. How wonderful that snippets of your daily life and your witty observations will be preserved.

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  12. Congratulations, and well deserved! Though my illusions are shattered re blue and white china and the British Isles...

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  13. How absolutely wonderful, although I think it may censor some comments!

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  14. Congratulations!

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  15. Congratulations Alice. This is a truly well deserved accolade.
    Bobby x

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  16. Does this mean I get some coffee cake now ?

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  17. PS I should add that I have always been very proud of MrsM whatever she does.

    I have prebooked the celebration for this Friday evening - always good to have an excuse

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  18. congrats! how fantastic :)
    well deserved

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  19. How fantastic! Now wondering what I've said in all those comments. Yikes! K x

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  20. oh my that is fantastic.

    And I'm not surprised. Well done Alice, nothing short of well deserved!!

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  21. Alice, this is amazing! And well-deserved. Congratulations!

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  22. Such fantastic news and so well deserved. Many congratulations
    T x

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  23. Nobody deserves it more.

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  24. Hooray, hooray! Can't imagine a more suitable blog ambassador.

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  25. Such an amazing achievement!! Well done...The British Library no less!!!

    I had better use spell check on my comments now ;-)

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  26. I am delighted for you and am sure that blogs of a quality such as this will soon find their way on to universities' reading lists.
    Congratulations.

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  27. How absolutely wonderful. Congratulations! Will there be virtual ribbon cutting, bubbles and little nibbles?

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  28. How wonderful. Congratulations, well deserved. Just think that someone in the future will do exactly what I did when they discovered your blog and poke about into your life through your humorous and sincere posts.

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Thank you! I love reading your comments and even though I don't always have time to reply I am really grateful to every one who joins in the conversation.