Using the resources

You can track the writings of a particular Mass Observer by going to the full list of  directive responses on Google Drive.

Then use the search box at the top of the page to search for individual correspondents using their code number.  You can find out the code numbers of individuals and basic information about them in our table.

This will bring up a list of all their responses to the various directives.  Click on the correspondent code in the list to access the pdf which you can then read, print or download.

If you want to find out what resources are available for a particular theme you can use our tables of selected data for the Mass Observation correspondents and ephemera and the British Library interviewees to guide your search.  Our selections relate only to our chosen themes, but the resources include a huge range of material relating to many themes.  You can get an idea of the content of the Mass Observation responses from reading the directives which they answered or by looking at the directive entries in the University of Sussex Special Collections catalogue.  Similarly, you can find out much more about the content of the oral history interviews by visiting the British Library Sound Archive catalogue.