The tens of millions of books housed within the walls of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. recently got a few unlikely companions: billions of 140-characters-or-less tweets.
The entire Twitter.com archive, dating back to March 2006, was gifted to the Library of Congress, the world's largest library, by Twitter's management on April 14. The archive consists of about five terabytes of data and is still growing, with about 50 million tweets being sent out daily, according to CNN.com.
The data will be accessible to any researcher with a Library of Congress Reader Identification Card. No tweet will be excluded, aside from those that are not public or are direct messages. Researchers have already begun to analyze the data for patterns and important information buried in the billions of tweets, using algorithms and other research methods, according to CNN.
"If you think the Library of Congress is ‘just books,' think of this: The Library has been collecting materials from the web since it began harvesting congressional and presidential campaign websites in 2000. Today we hold more than 167 terabytes of web-based information, including legal blogs, websites of candidates for national office, and websites of Members of Congress," Matt Raymond, the Library of Congress's director of communications, wrote in a blog post.
"There have been some really interesting uses of Twitter — such as people getting information out to the rest of the world from oppressed regimes that attempt to cut off their people's access to outside information, or politicians using Twitter to connect with constituents in ways that are ostensibly more personal, or use of this technology to update sports events in a play-by-play kind of way," Julie Dobrow, director of the Tufts Communications and Media Studies Program, said. "It's also interesting to me that so many ‘ordinary' people tweet about the mundane things of everyday life and that people read them — to me this is the quintessential blurring of public and private."
While Dobrow does not have her own Twitter account, she does not disapprove of the Library's decision. "I actually think it's a really interesting and progressive idea," she said. "What Twitter arguably can do is to show little slices of life, real-time — at least 140 characters' worth. I don't know how many people tweet about big events that will ultimately have historical significance, like the election of Obama, the earthquake in Haiti or Chile, etc., but those tweets could in years to come provide some historical significance. But even people's everyday stuff might be of interest to future cultural historians. There will be a ton of things to go through to get to the gems, but that's what historians do."
While some people believe that Twitter is an important part of today's digital society, others are unsure about its value. "I feel like a lot of tweeting is self-righteous," senior Alec Jahncke said. "It's like oh, I just had this funny thought, let me tell everyone."
Jahncke does not have a Twitter account and doesn't plan to get one any time soon. "Sometimes I wish I could share my witty observations throughout the day, but no, I don't want one," he said. "I just talk a lot, spread the word the old-fashioned way."
Gavin Matthews, a freshman with two Twitter accounts (one personal and one for his radio show), feels Twitter has a long way to go before it reaches its full potential. "Twitter is an experiment in a global group consciousness. However, its lack of depth and real direction limits it to, at best, the world of social networking. In the case of real-time crisis, Twitter is valuable in its reach and ability to rapidly share news in unfounded ways," he said. "Yet, in normal times, any news or valuable talk is lost in the sea of tweets. This was quite clear in the Iranian election crisis, which lost its presence on Twitter a mere week afterward.
"If one is careful in who and what they follow on Twitter, much as they [are] for all media outlets, Twitter is quite valuable," Matthews said. "Twitter's instant updates make it a useful communication tool, relaying key information far before television, print media or word of mouth can."
Matthews, an archaeology major, sees the Library of Congress' Twitter archive as an important way for future archeologists to analyze the past. "As an archaeology major, I value the material culture and documentation of a society of the past. Twitter, for better or worse, has emerged as a rather significant feature of modern society…[It] is a window into the popular culture, history, methodology, morality and minds of most of our world. If someone does not save this record for the future, this entire piece of the historical record is lost, a piece that defines much of our culture," Matthews said.
"Twitter records fall into the same realm as the preservation of artifacts of popular culture, buildings or even art. Tweets are part of our society and will have value to those studying this society in the future. Imagine if the works of Mozart were simply destroyed. Much of our understanding of the culture of the time would be lost. The same applies to tweets," Matthews said. "Whether critical news reports or messages to friends, these tweets help define what our society is."
