Back in the Stacks, Baby: The Library of Congress Archives Twitter
Posted by Twitter's Tee Morris | Posted in Blogging, Twitter Topics, Twitter in the News | Posted on 14-04-2010
Tags: archives, Facebook, history, Library of Congress, Twitter, Twitter in the News, users
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From @BrightEyedDyer who DMed me the breaking news and confirmed by both @LibraryCongress and USA Today comes an unexpected bit of news from Washington D.C. The Library of Congress has acquired Twitter archives dating back to 2006!
The Library of Congress go into details on their Facebook page, but USA Today reports the institution’s motivations in a nutshell:
The library notes that Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets a day and says its emphasis will be on the ”scholarly and research implications of the acquisition.”
Just a few examples of important tweets:
- The first-ever tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (http://twitter.com/jack/status/20)
- President Obama’s tweet about winning the 2008 election (http://twitter.com/barackobama/status/992176676)
- A set of two tweets from a photojournalist who was arrested in Egypt and then freed because of a series of events set into motion by his use of Twitter (http://twitter.com/jamesbuck/status/786571964) and (http://twitter.com/jamesbuck/status/787167620).
Expect a deeper dive into this topic on the next Bird House Rules; but for now, think of all the goofy things you’ve said and done since you’ve been flying about the birdhouse…and now think “Hey, my tweets are heading for the Library of Congress!”
Don’t you dare change a thing in how you tweet. After all, it’s that unabashed honesty that got you (and the rest of us Twitterakians) into these hallowed halls!
More to come…
The mediocrity of my tweets (@Mainframe) will now be saved for future generations. Now when my great-grand child becomes famous, he/she will be appreciated for how far they’ve risen.
Now if my early attempts at a podcast are saved, it will be a tragedy (at least for anyone in the future who might fire it up in their mp3 player)
*hehe*
Seriously, I’m not changing a thing. I fully expect my humble tweets to be lost in the vast mountain of tweets; only being read by some poor AI program that will be tasked to find any interesting tweets that may have been posted. I don’t post anything that would cause any problems, and I don’t plan on ever doing so.
Clean living does have its rewards.
Thanks so much for Bird House rules and your books on Twitter, Tee. You definitely rock!
Glad to know my tweet about my cat chasing a fly will be preserved for the ages. :p
Actually was just talking about this with my fellow librarian- this is just like collecting ephemera. People in the 19th century didn’t think their posters, postcards and love letters were worth much, but now people find them fascinating and worthy of study. It’s probably not up to us to decide the value of these things- that is for the future.
I find the idea of all of these tweets being saved somewhere fascinating, thrilling, and frightening. All at the same time. Pretty much my standard reaction to life in general. Tweet on!
The scary thought is that 100 years from now archeologists will be studying spam e-mails in order to learn about our society now…
Doc
Yes indeed.. but they currently study midden pits and look for toilets… so pretty much the same ole same ole.