April 5th

4/5/2013

blog.snapbomb.com

With libraries in the UK set to store the top 100 websites as well as other information, bloggers perk up. However, they won't choose small enterprises like us. Click here for the incredible list of the sites which should be preserved for historians and researchers.

Millions of tweets, Facebook status updates and even a blog about a bus shelter in the Shetlands are to be preserved for the nation. The British Library and four other legal deposit libraries have the right to collect and store everything published online in the UK. Around a billion pages a year will be available for research.

The archive will cover 4.8 million websites and will include magazines, books and academic journals as well as alternative sources of literature, news and comment such as Mumsnet, the Beano online, Stephen Hawking's website, and the unofficial armed forces' bulletin board, ARRSE.

www.bestourism.com

A spokesman from the British Library said while people may think information on the web lasts forever, huge amounts of research material has already disappeared, for instance material posted during the 7/7 bombings.

The British Library is also asking for advice from the public as to which websites should be preserved to give an accurate picture to future generations. As part of the launch of the process, the British Library has commissioned a survey of the top 100 websites that ought to be preserved for historians and researchers. Among the sites recommended to keep material from are eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Tripadvisor and Rightmove.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Meanwhile teachers have named the top 100 books. Below the top 20 are listed.

1. Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen

2. To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee

3. Harry Potter series: JK Rowling

4. Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte

5. Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte

6. Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell

7. The Lord of the Rings series: JRR Tolkien

8. The Book Thief: Markus Zusak

9. The Hobbit: JRR Tolkien

10. The Great Gatsby: F Scott Fitzgerald

11.. The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini

12. The Hunger Games series: Suzanne Collins

13. The Time Traveler's Wife: Audrey Niffenegger

14. The Chronicles of Narnia series CS Lewis

15. Of Mice and Men: John Steinbeck

16. Birdsong: Sebastian Faulks

17. His Dark Materials series: Philip Pullman

18. The Gruffalo: Julia Donaldson+ Axel Scheffler

19. The Catcher in the Rye: JD Salinger

20. Life of Pi: Yann Martel

I take a small amount of hope from the newly released books like The Time Traveler's Wife and the Harry Potter series. Even if my blog doesn't rate saving for the nation, at least my novels stand a chance.

Andrew Milburn link

4/4/2013 10:56:52 pm

Thanks for a great post and for a great resource. Well done

Francene Stanley link

4/5/2013 07:12:22 pm

Glad you appreciated my effort.

Amy link

4/4/2013 11:16:17 pm

Wow! Very impressive. I enjoyed reading that list, too--I feel quite accomplished, having read most of the books on it.

Francene Stanley link

4/5/2013 07:13:26 pm

Pat yourself on the back. I haven't read ALL of them.

Nancy Norbeck link

4/5/2013 05:23:26 am

Interesting about the libraries having a right to collect anything published online in the UK. Do you know how they're defining "published"? Is it anything accessible from the UK, or does it have to have originated there? It's tough to define these things now that information is so global.

I have to say I'm a little disturbed by the late 20th century/early 21st century bias on that book list. Are even a quarter of those books pre-20th century? I guess it's true that we know best what's most recent, but that still doesn't mean there aren't books worth reading from earlier days.

Francene Stanley link

4/5/2013 07:16:42 pm

This is a British survey. I guess published means when you click, 'publish', and the post is released for public viewing.
The list of books contains one hundred in total. I only listed the top 20. Many more of the classics come later.

Alana link

4/5/2013 09:16:52 am

The link to the British Library isn't working, which is too bad - the concept is interesting. As for the book list, interesting that several of these books have been quite controversial here in the United States. Were these teachers from Britain, or the U.S., I wonder?

Francene Stanley link

4/5/2013 07:06:43 pm

I tried to find the link to the websites in question once more. However, it seems to have vanished into cyberspace. It's not even on my history link. Maybe they've withdrawn it, which demonstrates why some blogs should be preserved.

Suerae Stein link

4/5/2013 09:40:43 am

I'm so happy to know that I've read over half your list of books. I'll have to get cracking to read the rest. It never occurred to me to archive websites and blogs, etc., but of course! Why wouldn't we? What a daunting task it would be to come up with that list! Great post! Have a great weekend.

Francene Stanley link

4/5/2013 07:18:22 pm

Yes. The news article staggered me too. Of course, anything we publish is available for anyone to read, blogs included.

Martha link

4/5/2013 10:13:42 pm

I've read 13 from the 20 you've listed. Nice post!

Comments are closed.

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Francene Stanley, author of many published novels. If you like my writing, why not consider purchasing one of my books? You'll see them on the sidebar below.
Born in Australia, I moved to Britain half way through my long life.

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