Library launches email archive

Computer giant Microsoft is joining forces with the library to collect a million entries for the "email Britain" archive.

Emails have become the main form of communication for many people, and the idea is to capture blunders, complaints, humour, romance and other topics.

John Tuck, head of British Collections at the British Library, said: "Email has in many respects replaced traditional forms of communications such as letters or memoranda, thousands of examples of which we have at the British Library. In the digital age, email has become prevalent in our day-to-day lives.

"Email Britain will allow us to archive a vast snapshot of our present-day email communications and will be of great value for future researchers.

"Digital archiving of email has never been attempted before on this scale and we're very excited to be capturing such a rich slice of contemporary life."

Jo Wickremasinghe, campaign manager at Windows Live Hotmail said: "We're trying to illustrate how integral email has become to our everyday lives.

"Mini soap operas are played out in inboxes across the country every day, from job offers to wedding proposals, big breaks to break-ups.

"We want this unique archive to make absorbing reading for years to come."

People are being asked to forward an email to email@emailbritain.co.uk from their inbox or "sent" mail that represents life as they see it today.