Archivists are beginning to consider social media platforms as venues where serious discourse and creation take place, and there is concern that this critical and ephemeral content will be lost to researchers unless institutions collect and preserve the content. But do archival researchers feel this way, and do they anticipate conducting research with social media data in the future? What do cultural heritage organizations need to be able to support this sort of collecting and research? With LSTA funding from the State Library of North Carolina, the NCSU Libraries has conducted two survey-based studies to support the building of a free, web-based documentary toolkit for social media archiving. The first study surveys archival researchers about the perceived value of social media data for archival research in the future. The second surveys North Carolina cultural heritage organizations about their social media collecting practices and what elements of a toolkit would most help them start or further their collecting practices. In the Research Forum, we will share our analysis of the surveys, as well as discuss other work completed on the project.
About the Author:
Brian Dietz is the Digital Program Librarian for Special Collections at NCSU Libraries. Responsible for all aspects of managing archival digital assets for the Libraries, his work includes planning for the implementation and sustainability of digitized and born digital resources. As co-PI on the LSTA-funded "New Voices and Fresh Perspectives" project, he designed new practices for identifying and harvesting social media data, oversaw the development of a free, web-based documentary toolkit, and contributed to two studies related to perceptions of social media held by archival researchers and cultural heritage professionals.
