The Algorithmic Archive project is a one year project funded by the Mellon Foundation. As part of the first Work Package, we explored how researchers from different disciplines use social media data to answer various research questions.
We would like to thank the researchers who generously shared insights from their work.
Use Case: Network/cluster analysis to investigate the construction and influence of information trustworthiness within social movements on Twitter[1]
Research questions and aim(s):
The researcher wanted to explore the construction and influence of information trustworthiness within social media movements in the context of the Hong Kong protests and the #BlackLivesMatter movements. Social media platforms offer a digital space for social movements to facilitate the diffusion of critical information and the formation of networks, coordinating protests and reach a wider audience.
Social media data used:
This study focused on Twitter as it was used evenly by both social movements, and the researcher already had an established presence on this platform. Also, at the time of data collection (2020-2021), access to Twitter data for academic research was still relatively open to researchers.
For the purpose of this study, the researcher examined the follow and followers’ relationship of top accounts counting millions of followers that had been selected as big information disseminators, including organisations, individuals or accounts serving a particular niche or purpose.
Data collection was conducted at a specific point in time in 2021. Social media data quantitative analysis (e.g. cluster analysis) was complemented with qualitative data collected via an online survey.
Tools and methods adopted:
The researcher requested and obtained access to the Twitter API. However, high-level coding skills were required to access the data, which the researcher did not have at that time due to their predominantly qualitative research background. To address this, the researcher found and used a Go script called Nucoll[2], which is freely available on GitHub and enabled the researcher to collect the required data. Nucoll is a command-line tool that, according to its developer, retrieves data from Twitter using keyword instructions, for which the developer provided example queries and brief explanations. For each social movement, the researcher selected three organisations: one large organisation, one activist group, and one additional account that was relevant to the movement. Once these accounts were selected, they were processed through the script to capture all following/follower relationships and combine them into a graph for each protest analysed. Further data visualisation and analysis — including clustering and network analysis — were conducted using Gephi.
[1] Charlotte Im, The Construction and Influence of Information Trustworthiness in Social Movements, Doctoral Thesis, University College London (UCL), 2024.
In 2024, the Algorithmic Archive Project has received funding from the Mellon Foundation to carry out scoping research that will ultimately support the Bodleian Libraries in the development of a lasting, interoperable infrastructure and sustainable strategies for archiving web-based data, including social media data and algorithms. The project is part of the broader Future Bodleian programme aiming to expand and evolve its centuries-old role by engaging with the digital domain.
Why archive social media data?
In the past two decades, social media platforms have become a central means of communication, enabling people from across the globe to engage in discussions that transcend geographical borders, reflect on contemporary events and contribute to collective memory. Given their profound impact on society, researchers across various disciplines increasingly rely on social media data to analyse social, economic, and political phenomena. However, social media data is inherently ephemeral, subject to continuous evolution driven by changes in platform leadership, economic gain, and shifting policies. For this reason, it is essential to preserve and provide reliable and sustainable access for the (re)use of such an important resource.
Steps towards the development of a social media and algorithmic data service.
The Algorithmic Archive project is articulated in four interconnected phases aimed to investigate the research, archiving, legal and technical landscape to inform the Bodleian Libraries’ future development of a social and algorithmic data service.
The image below offers a visual summary of the work packages that the Research Officers have been exploring over this one-year project.
In upcoming blog posts, we will present some of the results and highlight use cases drawn from research conducted with social media data.
Between 2-4 April 2025, I attended the very first edition of the Born-digital Collections, Archives and Memory conference, together with my colleague from the Algorithmic Archive Project, Pierre Marshall. The conference was co-organised by the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme at The British Museum, The British Library and Aarhus University. This international event offered the unique opportunity to bring together academics and practitioners from diverse disciplines, career paths and backgrounds to explore the transformative impact of born-digital cultural heritage. The diverse range of research, methodologies, and practices presented in this year’s programme offered valuable insights and reflections, particularly relevant to the Algorithmic Archive project and its goal of developing sustainable, persistent approaches to preserving born-digital heritage created on the web, especially on social media platforms.
The inspiring opening keynote by Dorothy Berry, Digital Curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, highlighted the vital importance of preserving ephemeral and fragile forms of born-digital heritage (such as social media) —many of which have increasingly replaced traditional modes of memory-making, also drawing attention to the pressing need for a deeper understanding of what and how born-digital memory should be preserved. In particular, she stressed the need to record the “full context” in which born-digital records and materials were embedded before being collected and included in specific collections. However, she also highlighted the challenges many memory institutions face due to uneven resource distribution, an issue that may hinders both the development and long-term sustainability of innovative preservation efforts.
Given the richness of the BDCAM25 program, it is incredibly difficult to summarise the many takeaways from the three-day conference. Nevertheless, it is worth highlighting sessions such as the one exploring the history, socio-technical dynamics and research conducted on corpora from platforms such as Usenet; the important reflections stemmed from a study conducted by Rosario Rogel-Salazar and Alan Colín-Arceexploring the presence of feminist organisations in web archives; and the research conducted by Dr Andrea Stanton exploring Palestine and the concept of Palestinian heritage through the analysis of accounts and hashtags on Instagram.
Particularly valuable insights came also from Dr Kieran Hegarty’s paper, which explored the challenges posed by the unpredictable and frequent changes to platform design and policies, underscoring how this significantly influence what is included in web archives and how the material is made available.
Beveridge Hall entrance, Senate House, University of London. Photo taken by B. Cannelli
Overall, the conference provided a valuable opportunity to learn about new research and to network with scholars and practitioners from around the globe. During lunch and coffee breaks, I had insightful conversations with several delegates about the challenges of preserving born-digital materials, particularly data generated on social media platforms. We exchanged ideas and reinforced the importance of developing shared practices to safeguard these resources. This theme strongly resonated in the closing session, which brought together voices from diverse career paths and regions to reflect on the current state of born-digital archives, collections, and memory, and to identify future directions. Among the key takeaways were the need to foster data literacy and building digital citizens from a young age, as well as the importance of connecting with activists and minority communities to help them tell and preserve their stories.
The Archive of John le Carré (David Cornwell) has been further expanded to include an extensive array of the author’s literary papers, personal and professional correspondence, photographs, interviews and articles, and an assortment of personal and family papers. The updated archive (see catalogue here: Collection: Archive of John le Carré (David Cornwell) | Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts), available now to readers at the Weston Library, contains over 1,200 boxes of material spanning Cornwell’s entire life and career, from childhood photographs and letters written during his time as a student at Lincoln College, Oxford, to correspondence and book drafts penned in the last few weeks of his life. The archive is a brilliant resource not only for fans of John le Carré and his internationally renowned novels and adaptations, but for researchers interested in British novelists, 20th and 21st century literature, or the spy genre in particular.
Supplementing the hundreds of boxes of Cornwell’s literary papers already in the archive, the newly released material offers an insight into Cornwell’s life as a whole, including and beyond his career as John le Carré. Key moments and experiences throughout his early adulthood, for instance, are represented in detailed correspondence with his first wife Ann and his tutor, mentor and friend Vivian Green (later cited as an important inspiration for the character of George Smiley). These letters provide a window into Cornwell’s student years, his complicated relationships with both his father and new wife, his early jobs as a teacher, aspiring illustrator and – of course – intelligence officer, as well as his first ventures into writing. The hundreds of letters Cornwell wrote to Ann during their relationship in the 1950s and 1960s were often highly personal and detailed, and frequently featured small sketches, as in this letter sent in April 1954 (MS. le Carré 929, folder 2). Further illustrations are scattered throughout the archive: in correspondence with friends and family, decorating novel drafts, and offered as donations to various charities.
Cornwell’s correspondence makes up a significant portion of the archive: letters to and from family, friends, colleagues and fans offer a unique insight into his professional experiences, personal thoughts, and sometimes variable relationships. The vast majority of this correspondence is handwritten, a lifelong preference touched upon in this ‘User’s Manual’ written by Cornwell when joining Penguin in 2009 (MS. le Carré 973, folder 2). He explains, ‘I write all my books by hand. I barely type, but can do one-finger e-mail. Jane & no-one else retypes my handwriting endlessly for me, & is my companion in all literary & professional matters’. As well as reflecting the distinctive way in which Cornwell wrote, this document highlights the essential role played by his second wife Jane, former publicist and foreign rights manager for Hodder & Stoughton. Cornwell goes on to write ‘her word is my word, & usually she’s better at it than I am. So when you get Jane, you are not getting second best, you are getting The One.’ This vital influence is evident throughout the archive, whether in Jane’s annotations across countless novel and letter drafts, the endless manuscripts she was responsible for typing, or David’s notes on almost every document asking ‘Oy’ (her nickname) to make x amendment, contact y person, or decline z invitation. This valuable collaboration is further explored by Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, in his article reflecting on the acquisition of the archive.
The archive includes correspondence with prominent authors, activists and politicians, as well as numerous actors, directors, producers and screenwriters involved in the many successful adaptations of Cornwell’s work. Perhaps most notable among these actors is Sir Alec Guinness, lauded for his portrayal of George Smiley in the 1979 and 1982 television adaptations of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People. Amongst a box of correspondence sent between the two from 1978 until Guinness’s death in 2000 are some brilliant letters discussing the prospect of Guinness playing Smiley in the very first television adaptation of a le Carré novel. In response to several pages from Guinness listing concerns regarding his suitability for the role, Cornwell sent this reassuring letter dispelling each one in turn (MS. le Carré 925, folder 1). As well as writing ‘no, you are not rotund or double chinned, though I think I have seen you in rôles where you have, almost as an act of will, acquired a sort of cherubic look!’, he assures Guinness that ‘apart from plumpness, you have all the other physical qualities: a mildness of manner, stretched taut, when you wish it, by an unearthly stillness and an electrifying watchfulness. In the best sense, you are uncomfortable company, as I suspect Smiley is’. This letter evidently had the desired effect: Guinness’s Smiley was an instant success and is still celebrated today. The archive highlights Cornwell’s frequent such involvement in adaptations of his works, assisting casting, script writing, and even appearing in several on-screen cameos.
Understandably, papers specifically relating to Cornwell’s literary works, including manuscript and typescript drafts, lists of edits and corrections, and correspondence with researchers and translators, comprise the majority of the collection. The character and timeline notes for A Perfect Spy pictured below are a classic example of the hundreds of novel notes and drafts in the archive: handwritten, with large chunks completely crossed out, and additions and edits, often in different coloured pens, dotted throughout (MS. le Carré 607, folder 2). Such notes and drafts would often be written in small notebooks, especially during Cornwell’s many research trips, or on pretty much any paper he had to hand, even the endpapers of whichever book he happened to be reading when inspiration struck. This particular example, written on standard A4 paper, sees Cornwell formulating the central characters in A Perfect Spy, father and son Rick and Magnus Pym, a duo based strongly upon the relationship between Cornwell and his own father, Ronnie. The notes refer to ‘Rick’s rachmannism [sic]’, showing obvious parallels even in the book’s early conception to Cornwell’s property dealer father, jailed for fraud and declared bankrupt multiple times.
The archive also extends beyond paper documents, including a great collection of photographs and press cuttings. In addition to the photo at the top of this blog post (MS. le Carré 1196, folder 3), the archive contains portraits of Cornwell taken throughout his life, as well as black and white family photos reaching back generations and photos with his Foreign Office colleagues in the 1960s. The impressive collection of press cuttings, dating from Cornwell’s debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961, also helps to put his work into a wider context. The scrapbook pictured below is filled with press cuttings relating to Cornwell’s first three novels, providing a glimpse into the beginning of his literary career and especially the sudden global success brought by his third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (MS. le Carré 1203, folder 1). Quotes from these cuttings, including ‘the spies are not playing Bond-like games: they operate nastily, unspectacularly and with real determination’ and ‘if it is not the best spy yarn I have read, it is certainly the finest anti-spy story’, illustrate the excitement surrounding this completely new style of spy novel.
The catalogue for the archive of the Greene family is now available, with material ready for consultation in the Weston Library. The archive largely comprises personal correspondence and photographs belonging to Graham Carleton Greene, CBE, publisher, and his mother, Helga Mary Connolly (née Guinness, other married name Greene), literary agent.
Helga Mary Connolly was born to Henry Samuel Howard Guinness and Alfhild Holter. She married her first husband Sir Hugh Carleton Greene in 1934, the couple had two sons, Graham C. and James C. Greene. Following their divorce in 1948, she opened the Helga Greene Literary Agency in 1952, which operated from Eaton Mews West in the house adjoining her own home. Her literary consultant, Kathrine Sorley Walker, later wrote in Remembering Helga, (1987) that Helga considered her agency ‘a small and very personal literary agency.’1 The agency represented authors including American mystery writer Raymond Chandler (from 1957), Austrian artist and poet Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Crossman M.P. and zoologist Lancelot Hogben (from 1953). Helga was engaged to Raymond Chandler upon his death in 1959, inheriting his literary estate and would become the authority on permissions for adaptations of his works.
Her personal papers primarily consist of correspondence with her first husband, the broadcaster Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, brother of the writer Graham Greene. The earliest letters derive from their engagement whilst living in Berlin in 1934. The letters also provide coverage of family life during a period of upheaval in Europe, after their expulsion from Berlin in 1939 (Hugh C. Greene was the Daily Telegraph’s Berlin Correspondent from 1938). The family was separated for periods of time, owing to Sir Hugh’s work in the RAF and as Head of the BBC German Service, MS. Greene family 1. A portion of the papers concern personal letters from members of the theatrical and literary community such as Tove Jansson, C.P. Snow, Mary Norton and Ivor Novello, MS. Greene family 3-4. The main business papers and correspondence of the Helga Greene Literary Agency are catalogued with the archive of Raymond Chandler.
Graham Carleton Greene CBE, 1936-2016
The bulk of the papers in the archive belong to Graham Carleton Greene, CBE who held the position of managing director of the publishing house Jonathan Cape from 1966-1988. Alongside an influential career in publishing, the papers and correspondence cover decades of involvement with numerous charitable organisations and cultural institutions. Graham was actively involved in shaping organisations including the Publishers Association (President, 1977-1979), Statesman and Nation Publishing Company (Chairman, 1981-1985), GB-China Centre, (Chairman, 1986-1997) and the British Museum (Chairman, 1996-2002). By this point, he had been a trustee of the museum for 24 years (from 1978-2002). During his tenure as chairman of the British Museum, he was involved with the redesign of the Great Court, with it opening in December 2000.
Outside of his professional life, Graham’s extensive personal correspondence spans six decades, and includes letters from a range of friends, particularly those who were extended hospitality at dinner parties arranged by him and his wife Sally. Literary dinners and parties were also thrown in celebration of new publications, including for a biography by Anthony Howard of his mother’s former client and friend, Richard Crossman M.P., MS. Greene family 39.
Several boxes of family photographs provide a snapshot of the life of the Greene family over many decades, with Helga and Hugh’s life in 1930s Germany, family holidays in the 1940s and Graham and James’s Eton school days in the 1950s all featuring. Photographs of Graham’s later travels to China are also included, MS. Greene family photogr. 5. He would go on to visit the country on multiple occasions and work to establish copyright treaties whilst chairman of the GB-China Centre in 1991.
The Bodleian Libraries also hold the papers of Sir Hugh Carleton Greene and the archive of Vivien Greene.
This collection comprises material collected by Seckersen for a dictionary of medical eponyms. The dictionary was never published. It also includes a set of glass negatives of portraits of those whose names have been used as an eponym.
Francis Wrigley Hirst (1873-1953) was a journalist who wrote for numerous publications, including The Speaker, The Manchester Guardian,The Tribune, and The Nation. He was chief editor of The Economist from 1907 until 1916. Due to his outspoken campaigning during wartime, where he published numerous pieces against conscription, on irresponsible war finance, and on the threat the war posed to civil liberties, he was forced to resign. In 1916, he set up his own paper, Common Sense, which was devoted to a negotiated peace, retrenchment, and the economy. In 1921, Common Sense was discontinued, and as Hirst’s influence within liberalism waned, he drew his attention to giving lectures in South Africa, Austria, and widely in the United States. Hirst unsuccessfully stood for Parliament as a Liberal in 1910 and 1929, and in June 1936 he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. Hirst wrote extensively about Adam Smith, William Ewart Gladstone, and John Morley. He died in 1953 of influenza, and a book titled F.W. Hirst By his Friends was published in his remembrance in 1958.
The archive comprises diaries, working and personal correspondence, literary and political papers, and press cuttings both by and of Francis W. Hirst.
Terence Osborn Ranger (1929-2015) was a historian of African history. While working at the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, he was horrified by the colour bar and, alongside his wife, became active in politics both inside and outside of the university. He was denied citizenship, possibly due to his political associations, and was declared a prohibited immigrant in 1963. He began working at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the pioneering African history department. During his time at Dar es Salaam, he wrote several books, including Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896–7 (1967) and Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, 1890–1970 (1975). In 1969 he moved to the University of California at Los Angeles as a professor and then in 1974 he moved to the University of Manchester as chair of modern history. During his time at Manchester, he began to introduce African history into the curriculum. Ranger was the Rhodes chair of race relations and a fellow at St Antony’s, Oxford, from 1987 until his retirement in 1997. He returned to Zimbabwe to teach at the University of Zimbabwe as a visiting professor (1998-2001) and spent time researching for his book Bulawayo Burning: The Social History of a Southern African City, 1893–1960 (2010).
The archive comprises working papers and correspondence, including material related to: academic appointments, research on African politics and history, and societies Ranger was associated with.
Thomas Lionel Hodgkin (1910-1982) was a historian of African history. He spent time in Palestine, in a cadetship in the Palestine civil service, which made him very aware of the nature of Western and British imperialism. After he resigned, he wanted to stay to observe the aftermath of the April 1936 Arab uprising but was made to leave by the British administration. He returned to Britain in 1936 and joined the London Library and the Communist Party. He met his wife, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, in 1937 when she was in London to photograph insulin at the Royal Institute.
He worked for the Workers’ Educational Association in north Staffordshire and, in September 1945, he became secretary of the Oxford University delegacy for extra-mural studies which took him to the Gold Coast and Nigeria in 1947. This began his interest in African history, and he wrote for West Africa on the background to African nationalism. After leaving the delegacy in 1952, he travelled extensively in Africa. He published his book Nationalism in Colonial Africa in 1956, before turning to the subject of Islam in Africa. He worked in several universities in America and Canada, and became director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana in 1962. He became a senior research fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, and lecturer in the government of new states in 1965, where he supervised students from many countries. He published several books during his life, including Perspectives (1960), African Political Parties (1961), and Vietnam: The Revolutionary Path (1981). He also wrote an unpublished novel titled ‘Qwert’.
The archive comprises: Academic papers, including lecture notes and papers on African history; correspondence, including from his family and wife, D.M.C. Hodgkin; literary papers including unpublished novels; and personal papers.
Tatchell is best known for his LGBTQ rights advocacy. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, and emigrated to London in 1972, where he quickly became involved with the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). In 1973 he was the GLF’s delegate to the World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin, where he distributed leaflets in support of gay liberation inside the German Democratic Republic. In 1986 Tatchell published a pioneering self-help book, AIDS: A Guide to Survival [find in the SOLO catalogue] and was a founding member of the UK AIDS Vigil Organisation and the UK chapter of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).
In 2011, OutRage! ceased operations and Tatchell founded The Peter Tatchell Foundation, a non-profit whose work seeks to promote and protect human rights in the UK and internationally.
In addition to his campaign work, Tatchell fought a number of parliamentary campaigns. In 1983 he ran as the Labour Party’s candidate in the Bermondsey constituency by-election, in 2000 he was an independent candidate for the Greater London Assembly, and in 2007 he was the Green Party’s candidate for Oxford East.
The archive mainly comprises Tatchell’s working papers for his protest and political campaigns, including research materials and protest ephemera (including a set of photographs of OutRage! protests by Steve Mayes), as well as papers relating to Tatchell’s journalism and travel writing. The catalogue is a first edition and additional protest ephemera and objects will be added following conservation work.
