NCSU Libraries have recently collected more than 1.2 million tweets from more than 380,000 Twitter accounts as part of its “New Voices and Fresh Perspectives: Collecting Social Media” initiative.
This type of archiving can be used to supplement traditional data collection methods. With standard practices, a historian might use personal notes, correspondence or intellectual papers to generate a historical perspective of that time’s events. With the focus on social media, the research team hopes to supplement these traditional forms of data with data that may be more relevant in today’s society.
“People aren’t writing formal letters anymore,” said Jason Casden, interim associate head of Digital Library Initiatives.
From NCSU Libraries use tweets to collect history – Technician: Features
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