Liverpool JMU - "People's Archive" being created

[Stephen Nulty]

Liverpool John Moores University is creating an online archive - details in this article from the Echo, spotted and suggested for GWF by Daggers

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/world-war-peoples-archive-launched-4389688

[bruce]

Just volunteered.......Bruce

[Promenade]

Not sure what this is about - surely this will dilute the IWM effort - have they coordinated? Would be more interested in what Liverpool University are doing - they have a fantastic memorial which I have dabbled with in the past and which I believe Bruce has an interest. Have emailed them. Promenade

[Stephen Nulty]

I thought of you two when I posted this thread, and I knew you would get involved in some way

[Ian Riley]

I thought of you two when I posted this thread, and I knew you would get involved in some way

What about me?

I have spoken to some others and it would appear that, although very well-intentioned, they need to do some groundwork to get their expectations correct. I am afraid that I cannot name my sources! There seemed,apparently, to be a perception, for instance, that people would hand over a lifetime's research that would then be used in this project. It is interesting in that it will have a Merseyside dimension. It worries me that family memories and recollections can be so wrong. How many times have we heard he was "gassed on the Somme in 1916, first day you know" for a battalion that was miles away at the time and a soldier who did not join until 1917. I had a long discussion with a very pleasant Canadian recently who appeared in Liverpool at virtually no notice and insisted that his grandfather had joined in 1914 and 'gone straight into the trenches until the end of the war'. I said that our records showed him as going overseas after 1915 and almost certainly in Fdebruary 1917; he continued to maintain we were wrong. Luckily (for me), he produced a photo showing two service stripes; distinguished service nonetheless. But once the original story is on the web, suddenly it's TRUE, it's FACT. I have just been told that a picture removed from our website, sent to another site and credited to the 'borrower' (an artist in the US) had a connection to the grandson of a 1915 casualty. This might be fine except that the officer casualty was unmarried, young, public school educated and Scottish Presbyterian (I think); not a likely candidate for dotting Liverpool with love-children in the manner of Superlambananas. These are all ways in which misinformation can be propogated.

I see that they are having 'gatekeepers' to ensure that information is appropriate; they may have quite a job judging by the standard of some of the correspondence in the Liverpool Echo; will they be able to sift fact from fiction or will they simply be controllers of grammar and syntax?

I will be in touch with them (Liverpool JMU) but, except on an individual basis, we are unlikely to (read: will not) provide data in wholesale quantities; we rely on it to generate some income although we never make a donation obligatory. Our wording is " .... if you feel that you have received something of value and wish to make a donation ...". We receive very little funding outside donations and nothing from the public purse but handle over 250 queries a year - of whom perhaps just over half actually acknowledge our replies and a third of which make a donation. Our data comes from our own sources and research with a very substantial contribution from the work of others who I know would not wish to find their material on free and general broadcast. It's their data and research and they can provide under the conditions that they choose.

Grump/rant over

Ian

[Ian Riley]

Not sure what this is about - surely this will dilute the IWM effort - have they coordinated? Would be more interested in what Liverpool University are doing - they have a fantastic memorial which I have dabbled with in the past and which I believe Bruce has an interest. Have emailed them. Promenade

Promenade,

I suggest you speak to a mutual friend on the Pier Head, if you have not done so already.

Ian