The Library of Congress Acquires Twitter Archives
Twitter |
Since Twitter went live four years ago, the social network and messaging platform has been generating millions of tweets with a rated fifty five million sent out everyday. This week, the social network and microblog’s entire archive of tweets will be making a move and will be calling the US Library of Congress its new home.
“The Library’s primary mission is research and it receives copies of every book, pamphlet, map, print, and piece of music registered in the United States.” said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on the Twitter blog. “Recently, the Library of Congress signaled to us that the public tweets we have all been creating over the years are important and worthy of preservation.”
Stone adds that though a tiny percent of accounts are protected, most of the tweets sent out were created with the intent that they will be publicly available. He then shared the specifics of the arrangement, explaining that only six-month old tweets will be used within the library, “for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.”
The move is rather logical as Twitter has been used as a messaging tool during various historical events around the world, from elections to devastating disasters.
Matt Raymond, the Library of Congress’ Director of Communications, cited in a blog post various instances where Twitter was the historical news bearer and was even instrumental in setting other important events into motion. He includes President Obama’s tweet about winning the 2008 election and tweets from James Buck, a journalist who was arrested in Egypt but was freed thanks to a series of events Twitter prompted.
“It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research.” Stone further expressed. “It’s very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history.”
Popularity: 9% [?]
RSpears @ April 15, 2010
