The Woruldhord project opened its online submission site to public contributions this weekend. On Tuesday afternoon, an article about the project appeared in the Guardian. The article describes the project and what it is setting out to do
(“collect together into an online hoard, digital objects related to the teaching, study, or research of Old English and the Anglo-Saxon period of history”). It also puts the online collection in context of two recent events: the discovery of a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold in Staffordshire, and the appointment of a new professor of poetry at Oxford.

The project director, Dr Stuart Lee, is quoted in the article:

“The archive will be the first mass observation that has ever been done on the period, and will be of use to historians, English literature students, archaeologists, art historians, and the general public,”

Featuring in the article is also a short film based on an Old English poem “The Ruin”. The film is also available on YouTube and has received number of enthusiastic comments there.

“This is still my #1 favorite video on? Youtube. Thanks for sharing!”

“This video got me interested in Old? English,its my favourite poem and i dont even like poems,well done =)”

The YouTube comments also include discussions about language, which shows how engaging the Anglo Saxon period can be. Many also refer to Dr Lee’s lectures on Old English, which are available as podcasts.

The publication of the article is an interesting illustration of the fact that community collections can be news-worthy.

It also shows how you can get national press coverage if you know what channels to go through (such as you university’s press office or similar), how to present your project in a suitable context, and – not least – have a good project to start with! It’d be interesting to hear how other projects have gone about getting press coverage and how that has worked out (or not).