Research project explores digital memories

A new research project called ‘Digital Lives’ is looking into how we use computers in our daily lives to capture personal moments and memories. Led by the British Library with University College London and University of Bristol, the project team are inviting anyone who uses a computer in their daily lives to complete an online survey.

Jeremy Leighton John, the British Library’s curator of e-manuscripts and the principal investigator of 'Digital Lives' said: ‘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 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.