6.1 Recommendations from Groups, Professionals, and Projects
6.1.4 Difficulty Applying Traditional Archival Practices
The DocNow white paper cites the “sheer volume of data and complicated
logistics of interacting with content creators” in their suggestion of difficulty (Jules et. al, 3). Results of this survey show that institutions are most likely to collect from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs, which is largely in line with the Pew Research Center’s assertion that Facebook and YouTube are the most-used social media platforms among adults (Social Media Use 2018: Demographics and Statistics, np). We can then see the platform’s popularity as a correlation with which archives collect social media sites. That popularity, while creating a wealth of information, can also produce a veritable ocean of data.
When considering a traditional archival tool like a donor agreement, it can be difficult to conceive of tracking down each user in a hashtag collection and requesting permission. One participant in the survey wondered whether developers could create crawling technology outfitted with automatic donor requests that would then go to users whose data is crawled. Indeed, it does seem as though automation may be the only viable solution to gathering consent from every subject in a social media archive.
When considered at a smaller level, though, donor agreements may have some validity. Archivists might begin to include language about social media accounts in their traditional donor agreements. When considering collecting an activist account or local baseball team, archivists could draw up gift agreements that take into account the wishes and goals of the groups who may become donors. This piece-by-piece solution may not be viable in the long term, however, as social media continues to grow and the pool of data expands, but it may be a good stopgap until our harvesting technology catches up with our needs.
7 Conclusion
The findings of this project, while not generalizable to the overall archival field, indicate that there is still work to do in order to bring social media archives in line with the ethical codes described by practitioners. Participants in the survey portion of this paper expressed the desire to seek consent from subjects, develop better appraisal and collection tools, and increase the knowledge base of social media users as a whole. Although social media collecting is not as widespread as web archiving and other born- digital practices, the popularity of online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are undeniable. Without archiving social media, we may be falling prey to a version of Kuny’s digital Dark Age, which will leave a portion of our history, culture, and lives unattended and unappreciated.
Several potential avenues for further research emerged from this project. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
Awareness of social media users in regards to who uses their data and how their data may be used for research.
In-depth content analyses of social media collecting and appraisal policies. Development of collecting and appraisal frameworks for social media.
These topics and more will inevitably help make the Internet, social media research, and archival collecting safer and more ethically-conscious. Though platforms may come and
go, it appears that social media is here to stay. We must develop best practices and common methodologies in order to give social media the same attention we give other materials in our collections.
8
Appendix
1) What type of archival institution do you work for? a) Academic library (university library)
b) Government agency c) Local archive d) State archive e) Museum f) Other i) Please explain
2) Does your institution collect social media in its archives or special collections? a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
3) What social media platforms do you collect from? Check all that apply. a) Facebook b) Twitter c) Instagram d) YouTube e) Tumblr f) Vine g) Flickr h) LinkedIn
i) Blogs (i.e., wordpress) j) Other
i) Please specify, with commas separating each platform.
4) Does your institution collect social media posts from accounts that are unaffiliated with the institution? (i.e., hashtag collecting, activist accounts, local government officials, etc.)
a) Yes b) No
c) I don’t know
5) Which tools does your institution use in the collection of social media? Check all that apply.
a) Twarc
b) ArchiveSocial c) Archive-It
d) Social Feed Manager e) API collecting
g) Other
i) Please specify. If possible, please provide a link to the website or GitHub page for the tool.
6) From the list below, please choose the phrase that best describes your highest-priority consideration when choosing a social media collecting tool.
a) Ethical concerns (privacy, user intent, risk to social media users) b) Availability of staff to perform necessary collecting tasks
c) Price of tool d) Simplicity of tool
e) Accessibility and end-user retrieval f) Data storage
g) Other
i) Please specify.
7) Are your social media collections available for research? a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
8) If collections are available, how are they accessed by researchers? a) Reading room only
b) Digital copy available online from institution’s website
c) Digital copy or surrogate available online from third party website (i.e., Archive- It)
d) Data transferred via spreadsheet (i.e., tweet ids) e) Other
i) Please specify
9) Are there any restrictions set for accessing social media, including embargoes or other protections?
a) Yes b) No
c) I don’t know
10) (Redirected from 9 if participant selects “yes”) Please specify.
11) Does your institution have a formal written social media collecting policy? a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
12) (Redirected from 11 if participant selects “yes”) Is it publicly available? a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
13) Does your institution have an informal draft or verbal collecting policy? a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
14) Are any takedown policies or other deletion mechanisms in place for users whose social media posts have been collected?
b) No
c) I don’t know
15) (Redirected from 14 if participant selects “yes”) Briefly, please explain the request or deletion process.
16) Does your institution attempt to contact social media users whose posts have been or may be collected in order to obtain permission?
a) Yes b) No
c) I don’t know
17) In a brief statement or paragraph, please describe your perception of the ethical responsibilities archivists have when collecting social media (toward social media account holders and users, researchers, etc.).
18) If your institution has a social media collecting policy, do you feel that the
responsibilities you outlined in question 17 are being fulfilled by that policy? Please explain.
19) What ethical aspects of social media archiving would you like to see explored further in archival literature?
20) If you are familiar with any publicly available, online social media collecting policies, from your institution or others, will you please provide the link(s) here?
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