Mass Observation Online, from Adam Matthew Digital | eReviews
By Cheryl LaGuardia
Jul 15, 2011Mass Observation Online
Adam Matthew Digital,
amdigital.co.uk/Collections/Mass-Observation-Online.aspx
CONTENT Mass Observation Online (MOO) is derived from the Archive of Mass-Observation, founded in 1937 by three Englishmen, “anthropologists, documentary film makers, and surrealist poets,” aiming to create an “anthropology of ourselves.” They outlined their initial London-based project in the New Statesman, asking for volunteers to “reply to regular questionnaires on a variety of matters.” MOO offers access to material from this project archive, including a complete set of the File Reports, 1937–72, with full-text searching ability; access to the Day Surveys, Directives, and Diaries, 1937–45; Topic Collections covering Capital Punishment, Dreams, Drinking Habits, Famous Persons, Film, Gambling, Household Budgeting, Juvenile Delinquency, Korea, Peace & the Public, Posters, Radio Listening, Reading Habits, Religion, Smoking Habits, Victory Celebrations, World Outlook, and the September 1946 exhibition held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Britain Can Make It”; the Worktown Collection, 1937–40; nine contextual scholarly essays describing the archive and suggesting research and teaching strategies; photographs by Humphrey Spender; and interactive maps.
USABILITY The MOO opening screen shows a circle surrounded by illustrations from everyday British life (children at play, women socializing). The circle itself has an outer, interactive ring of six links (Contents, Introduction, Search, Essays, Resources, and Help) with inner static rings that describe the subjects covered, e.g., eating, queuing, kissing, traveling, washing, sleeping, sex, cooking, holidaying, hearing, dreaming, laughing, art, courting, fearing, relaxing, drinking, politics, reading, happiness, dying, looking, playing, and working.
I took a look at Contents first, and the screen switched to a clever, sepia-colored depiction of period index cards and files. I was asked if I wanted to view listings from the Digital Holdings tab or the Entire Collection (the material available online plus microfilm and print materials in the Archive). Up at screen top right, there’s a Search box with links to Advanced Search and Popular Searches beneath it. Both tabs under Contents list the following collections: Mass Observation Studies File Reports 1937–72; Topic Collections 1938–65; Worktown Collection 1937–40; Worktown Photos, Publications, Diaries and Personal Writings: Diaries 1939–45; Day Surveys 1937–38; and Directive Replies 1939–45. Each of these areas has a live “scope note” describing what you’ll find there—very nice!
The Topic Collections caught my eye, so I delved in and found listings perusable by number or letter. I chose the alphabetical list and went into Dreams 1937–48, where I found an entry on War Dreams. When I clicked on it, I was taken to typed accounts from the archive. The level of description is phenomenal, and I can only imagine the enormous value these personal accounts offer researchers on the World War II period in the UK.
Next I clicked on the Introduction tab (being left-handed, I always go about spatially arranged material in unusual ways) and was able to read a Brief History of the project, as well as sections on the Archive Today, Nature and Scope, and Selection Criteria. These are mostly textual sections, with links to other related parts of MOO. The Essays tab took me to a list of 16 essays ranging from “Everyday Life and the Birth of Mass Observation” by Ben Highmore (Sch. of Cultural Studies, Univ. of the West of England) to “Sex, Snobs and Swing: A Case Study of Mass Observation as a Source for Social History” by Jennie Taylor (doctoral candidate, dept. of history, Univ. of Auckland).
The Resources tab provides access to a Chronology (actually, two: a World War II chronology from 1939 to 1945 and an Interactive Chronology from 1937 to 1957), Interactive Maps (of various regions in the UK, with zoomable versions), a Bibliography, External Links (to related archives, libraries, museums, and research projects), and an Image Slideshow. The Help section is truly helpful and includes specific and direct tips for using the collections in teaching. This is an electronic product well designed to be used in classrooms as well as for individual scholarly research.
Advanced Search lets you search the Digital Holdings or Entire Collection, using Keywords; wild cards (* or ?); word stemming; and, or, and not Boolean operators; and restricting your search by date and document type. My search for “dream?” and “food?” located not only 268 documents, but also the amazing amount of indexing that’s been done for material here; much of the archive is in the original volunteers’ handwriting.
In a few cases, it took ten seconds to load a couple documents. That’s about the worst thing I can come up with to say about this product, which should give you an idea of how good it is.
PRICING The onetime price range for this file plus Updates I and II (a complete package to new purchasers) is $28,000–$96,000, dependent on institution. Contact info@amedu.com directly to receive a bespoke price quotation. Adam Matthew Education uses a banded pricing structure to determine fair discounts and payment plans for institutions of all sizes.
BOTTOM LINE The look and feel will appeal to youngsters, while the extraordinary content, which is unique, extensive, and granular, will fascinate scholars across the disciplines. The easy ability to download entire documents in PDF adds to the utility of this as a research and teaching tool. On my one to ten scale? It’s an 11. A remarkable combination of superb content and effective delivery that will serve researchers at all levels, from high school to postdocs. Brilliant! For a free trial please go to amdigital.co.uk/Online-Trials.aspx.
| Author Information |
| Cheryl LaGuardia is the Research Librarian for the Widener Library at Harvard University and author of Becoming a Library Teacher (Neal-Schuman, 2000). Readers and producers can contact her at claguard@fas.harvard.edu |
