Digital Lives: New Research Project to Explore the Nation's Digital Memories

• New research project to explore the nation's digital memories.
• 'Digital Lives' sets to understand how we use computers in our daily lives to capture personal moments and memories
• Led by the British Library with University College London and Bristol University

All creators and users of digital information invited to fill in an online survey.

From diaries, letters, jottings and photo albums to blogging, emailing, tweeting and flickr-ing, the digital revolution has affected enormously the ways in which we record our personal lives. These largely born-digital collections will become invaluable in years to come for researchers - from biographers and historians to literary critics and scientists. Currently nobody knows for sure what is happening to this material and whether it can be made available in the future. 'Digital Lives' aims to begin to answer these questions.

Dr Jeremy Leighton John, the British Library's Curator of e-Manuscripts and the Principal Investigator of 'Digital Lives', says: "More and more people are creating, acquiring and holding digital information on their desktops, laptops and hand-held devices. We need to begin to understand the way people capture, maintain and share digital information, the legal and ethical environment in which they do so, including perceptions and realities of ownership, and the impact of new technologies on recording our lives."

The team is now looking for help from anyone who uses computers in their daily lives. There are two ways in which people can participate and help the 'Digital Lives' project:

• By completing an online survey at http://www.bl.uk/digitallivessurvey.html The survey looks at the way people currently use their computers to capture their digital lives
• By sending in details of technologies and online services relevant for capturing, retaining and sharing digital information to digital.lives@bl.uk

As the custodian of the nation's collective memory the British Library has an interest in enabling future access to digital archives and personal collections created by individuals in the 21st century. The project team has already interviewed a number of individuals such as the
politician Tony Benn, molecular biologist Richard Henderson, playwright, actor and comedian Patrick Marber, digital storyteller and photographer Daniel Meadows, architects M. J. Long and Rolfe Kentish, and geophysicist Martin Siegert.

For further information about 'Digital Lives' please visit
http://www.bl.uk/digitallivessurvey.html or contact Suvi Kankainen in the British Library's Press Office suvi.kankainen@bl.uk