By Chloe Daniel – Mass Observation Archive Assistant Content warning: this post discusses the themes of death and dying ‘After she died, I fretted that I might not have been praying hard enough or in the right way or not…
Blog Archives
Collections reading group
By Richard Wragg – Collections Manager For the last few months, the Collections Team have been meeting for a reading group. The texts we have chosen to discuss have all had a focus on decolonisation, equality and diversity. The reading…
Not as boring as they sound – reading the history of Zimbabwean independence from airline annual reports in the BLDS Legacy Collection
By Danny Millum – BLDS metadata and discovery officer One of the many strengths of the BLDS Legacy Collection lies in its holdings of annual reports, from both government departments and public and private companies. While obviously vital source material…
Tagged with: Air Zimbabwe, Airlines, Annual reports, Zimbabwe
Posted in BLDS (British Library for Development Studies), The Library
Posted in BLDS (British Library for Development Studies), The Library
12th May 2020 an introduction to the diaries
By Chloe Daniel – Mass Observation Archive Assistant 23 March, 2020. The country, along with life as we knew it, stopped. School’s out. Non-essential shopping is no longer permitted. Gatherings involving more than two people now prohibited. You may only…
Tagged with: 12th May, Coronavirus, Covid-19, Diaries, Lockdown
Posted in MO (Mass Observation), The Keep
Posted in MO (Mass Observation), The Keep
House bound
By Lisa Towner – Collection Development Library Assistant (and bookbinder extraordinaire) When bookmaking during lockdown I think about a book by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, Mindfulness a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world. Making books has…
Tagged with: Bookbinding, Books, Hobbies, Lockdown, Mindfulness, Notebooks, Sketchbooks
Posted in Collection Development, Uncategorised
Posted in Collection Development, Uncategorised
Telling the time and temporal rhythms
Evidence from the MOA Autumn 2017 directive One-day diary: organising and experiencing time By Clare Holdsworth, Keele University Writing a one-day diary is a key activity of being a MOA correspondent. One-day diaries are often used in directives, including the…
Our treasure trove of printed journals
By Chloe Dobson – Collection Development Librarian Did you know that we have a basement area in The Library which is full of printed journals from all subject areas? We provide access to tens of thousands of journals online, which…
Tagged with: Images, Journals, Magazine's, Print journals
Posted in Collection Development, The Library
Posted in Collection Development, The Library
Plans… remember those? A look at the architectural plans of the University of Sussex
By Karen Watson – Special Collections Archivist Plans. It’s a bit tricky to make any at the moment. Luckily that wasn’t the case when the University of Sussex was commissioning new buildings and renovating student residences over the past 50…
A Taste of History – Travelling back in time through recipes and Mass Observation
By Dr Stella Sims In this video project I recreate recipes taken from, or inspired by 1941 food diaries held at the Mass Observation Archive, going back in time to a moment in history to cook and taste what someone…
Tagged with: Diaries, Dr Stella Sims, Food, Mass Observation, Rationing, Second World War
Posted in MO (Mass Observation), Special Collections, The Keep
Posted in MO (Mass Observation), Special Collections, The Keep
‘For security reasons it may not be prudent to unfold where I am’ – Ghana’s 1978 electoral commissioner’s letter from hiding surfaces in the BLDS Legacy collection
By Danny Millum – BLDS Metadata and Discovery Officer Cataloguing on the BLDS Legacy Collection project has now reached Ghana, and we’ve just unearthed a fascinating letter from a dramatic time in that country’s political history. On 30 March 1978…
Tagged with: Elections, Ghana, Government, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Letters, Politics, Referendum, UNIGOV
Posted in BLDS (British Library for Development Studies), IDS
Posted in BLDS (British Library for Development Studies), IDS