the great war archive: how audiences engaged with ww1

The Great War Archive: How The Great War Archive: How audiences engaged with WW1audiences engaged with WW1

Kate LindsayKate Lindsay

Manager for EngagementManager for Engagement

katharine.lindsay@oucs.ox.ac.uk @ktdigital

Project Aims

To collect and make available online digital version of WW1 memorabilia

held by the public.

Year: 2008Length: 16 WeeksMain Country: UKCollection Days: 6Website: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa

The Great War Archive (GWA)

Year: 2011 -Length: 6 Months (ongoing)Main Country: GermanyCollection Days: 8Website: http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu

Ester Weltkreg in Altagsdokumenten (EWA)

Submissions

A submission is the objects + description contributed to the archive together.

Submissions

Files

Overall, GWA submissions have fewer files attached than EWA submissions (on average 3.4 and 14.5)

People Contributing

People Contributing (EWA)

Whilst audience data was not collected for the GWA, we do know that 1/3 of online contributors were uploading submissions on the behalf of someone else.

Observations

• The audiences of GWA and EWA were largely over 45 yrs and male.

• The project audiences were often genealogists, military collectors and local

historians.

• Tapping into existing audiences, conversing with them in the spaces and places

that they already existed led to effective engagement.

• It is indicated that a significant proportion of our audience did not have the IT

literacy skills to engage with the project via technologies.

• Research needs to be done into finding “the hook” for younger audiences.