Calling all UK Friends... Mass Observation Needs Us!

[curiouswombat]

My daughter just passed this link on to me. It is a call for anyone and everyone to keep a diary for tomorrow, Thursday May 12th, and e-mail it to become part of an archive of everyday life in Britain - the first was made in 1937, so a good tradition!

I'll be doing it - why not join in?

Comments

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

How cool! Wish I lived in the UK, at least for tomorrow.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

What an interesting concept... I wish they would make a part of it available online to the general public.

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

Has this happened every May 12 since 1937? That archive would be so interesting to look through! I wish there was something like this here. (Maybe there is and I just don't know it.)

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

Does LJ class as a diary?

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Mine would be gripping: got up, fed the cats, watched the racing!

(I have the week off)

[gillo]

That seems like an excellent idea - I'm up for it!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It should make for a fascinating archive - I think they based it on the 1937 one when they first repeated it and look as if they are going to repeat it regularly.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It looks as if it is currently only available online to other universities and to public libraries - although if your public library does subscribe to Adam Matthews Digital Archive (http://www.amdigital.co.uk/) there seem to be some fascinating things available to read.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They haven't done it every year, I don't think - but seems as if they are going to continue doing them regularly.

There seems to be some similar collections done in the US - the UK one is accessible to university and public libraries via Adam Mathew digital (http://www.amdigital.co.uk/) - and it looks as if there are US things on it, too.

Aren't you studying at the moment, library related even? You'll have to have a sneaky peek!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

If you copy it and send it to them as an e-mail with the disclaimer....

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for the week off - and they do say to just add a note if it was an unusual Thursday...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So they'll get at least two middle-aged ladies whose diary includes 'spent time on LJ' and 'wrote fanfic' - yay!

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

How interesting!! We have a meeting about redundancies tomorrow, so I think I will write about my day as it'll be quite a good snapshot of a typical day in these horrendous cuts!!

:)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Alas, my library doesn't subscribe. :( Not surprising, really, as there are limited funds and oh so many worthy archives...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Sadly it will be a very good picture.

Best of luck in getting what you want from the redundancies - although, of course, their aim is to try and stop that :~(

[hobbituk.livejournal.com]

I think I will give it a go... although I will anonymise any names etc. Will they mind, do you think?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'll be anonymising names - it'll be 'my colleague M the health visitor, my colleague B the district nurse, my patient L who has spina bifida', and so on. I should think they'd expect it from most people.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

That looks interesting! Thanks for the link. I've already set up the background information and added the donation bit on the iPad, so I can carry on with the diary at work.

What seems trivial to us today may be most interesting to people in 50 or 100 years time!

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

Make that three ...

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

Pity I can't read it.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I was just setting up the background info as well - I could probably do 7.50 am to 9am now too!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The link? Maybe it's like some of the BBC ones and only accessible for certain addresses or something? It's a UK university which has an original 'diary archive' dating back to 1937 - they do regular 'snapshot' days where they get as many people in Britain as possible to keep a 24 hour diary of their everyday lives.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Four!

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Having looked quickly at their guidelines for regular contributors, they positively instruct you to anonymise, so that looks like it's fine.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yay! Should be very interesting.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought - thank you for looking it up!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

No, I should have explained myself better. The link works fine. Pity I can't read the diaries because I can't access them. They should be very interesting.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ah - sorry, I wasn't sure. We won't be able to easily read the diaries, either, they are only easily available in their entirety to academics - but it will be fun to know that I'm part of it.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed doing it - I must look out to see if they are doing it again next year.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

But you can read mine... some of the others on my FL posted theirs and I decided to do the same thing!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

I see you've already posted your first entry. I'm going to enjoy reading them.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

Five. I'll have to tell them I stopped especially at the supermarket to pick up the new DW magazine.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Yay! I didn't actually get to do anything Who on Thursday, so you can redress the balance a bit...

[Perfect icon.]

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

Nearly a month later, I'm looking through my e-mail and realized I never answered you. Sorry about that! Yes, I'm studying for my Masters in Library and Information Science. I'm going half time (which is what the school recommends for those who are working full time), so it'll be another year yet. (I bookmarked the website so I can get back to it easily - it looks very interesting, thank you!)