Building Social Media Collections

Presentation to University Library Committee

Brian Dietz & Jason Ronallo
NCSU Libraries

Harvesting and Archiving

Preponderance of Social Media

2.2 Billion Active Social Media Users

30% global usage

http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/08/global-statshot-august-2015/

In 2015 in the US

65% of adults use at least one social media platform

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/

Percentage of Adult Internet Users, by Platform

  • 72% Facebook
  • 28% Instagram
  • 23% Twitter

Percentage of Young Adult Internet Users (18-29), by Platform

  • 82% Facebook
  • 55% Instagram
  • 32% Twitter

Researchers are Taking Note

In a meta-analysis of studies using data from Twitter, there were least seventeen different disciplines represented in 382 studies spread over six years.
Michael Zimmer and Nicholas John Proferes, “A Topology of Twitter Research: Disciplines, Methods, and Ethics,” Aslib Journal of Information Management 66, no. 3 (2014): 250–61.

Twitter Research Data Grants

  • Foodborne Gastrointestinal Illness, Harvard Medical School / Boston Children’s Hospital
  • Disaster Information Analysis, NICT (Japan)
  • Cancer Early Detection Campaigns on Twitter, University of Twente (Netherlands)
  • Happiness of Cities, UC San Diego
  • Modelling Urban Flooding in Jakarta, University of Wollongong (Australia)
  • Sports Team Performance, University of East London

But Why Archive Social Media Data?

Discourse Relevant to Archival Collections

How could we not want to preserve a vast record of everyday life and thoughts from tens of millions of people, however mundane?
Dan Cohen, Digital Ephemera and the Calculus of Importance.

Perceived Value of Social Media Data Among Archival Researchers

Serious discourse occurs on social media?

45% agreed

22% strongly agreed

(67% combined)

Value in using social media data in research?

34% agreed

37% strongly agreed

(71% combined)

What Could We Collect?

Official Records

@NCState

Everday Experience

#ThinkAndDo

Significant Events

#WomenInSTEM

Greater Representation in the Archival Record

  • Increase diversity of voices in historic record
  • Build more representative collections

My #HuntLibrary

Crowdsourced storytelling

Multiple Access Layers

Battles, Voting, Moderation

Archival Component

“New Voices and Fresh Perspectives”

2014-15 LSTA EZ Innovation Grant

  • Administered by the NC State Library
  • Collaboration between SCRC and DLI
  • Guidance from Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center
  • Significant contributions from student assistants

Project Goals

  • Establish groundwork for a social media collecting program at NCSU Libraries
  • Develop free, web-based documentary toolkit
  • Develop open, easily deployable collecting environment

Collecting Program

Not collecting all of Twitter and Instagram!

Focus on Current SCRC Collecting Strengths

  • NCSU History
  • Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design
  • Animal Rights and Welfare
  • Entomology
  • History of Computing and Simulation
  • Plant and Forestry Genetics and Genomics
  • Textiles
  • Veterinary Medicine
  • Zoological Health

Identifying Content

  • Targeted accounts
  • Hashtags
  • Keywords

Account-based harvests

  • Alumni Assoc.
  • AfAm Cultural Center
  • Arts NC STATE
  • Coll + Depts
  • DASA
  • GLBT Center
  • Grad School
  • Libraries
  • NCSU
  • NC Mod Houses
  • OIT
  • Park Scholarship
  • Technician
  • Welcome Week
  • WKNC
  • 450+ more

Hashtag-based harvests

  • Agriculture Awareness Week
  • Art2Wear
  • Chapel Hill Shooting
  • Free Expression Tunnel
  • Hofmann Forest
  • Homecoming
  • Hoops 4 Hope
  • Hunt Library
  • Krispy Kreme Challenge
  • NCState16 - NCState20
  • NCStateOnCampus
  • Pack Athletics
  • Packapalooza
  • Pan Afrikan Festival
  • Shack-a-thon
  • Talley Grand Opening
  • Think And Do
  • Women In STEM

This Data Is University History

Documentary Toolkit

To help other institutions kickstart
their own collecting initiatives

  • Environmental scan
  • Research value
  • Legal and ethical analysis
  • Documentation
  • Surveys

Broader Impacts

Contributions to the Profession

Open Source

https://github.com/NCSU-Libraries/

Lentil

Technical prerequisites

2011-2012 ALA Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study

Financial costs

Along with email, social media will probably provide the main source of information for researchers studying our current time. However, our institution just does not have the resources right now to collect and store the social media of other people or organizations.
NCSU Social Media Archives Toolkit survey of North Carolina Cultural Heritage Organizations

Beyond Open Source

Metrics for Success

Social Media Combine

Virtualized social media harvesting environment

https://github.com/NCSU-Libraries/Social-Media-Combine

Virtualization

vagrant

vagrantup.com

Repurposing Virtualization

Peer-to-Peer

Future Plans

  • Continued collecting
  • Access
  • Best practices
  • Outreach and campus partners
  • Challenges of social media archiving

Thanks!

Brian Dietz bjdietz@ncsu.edu

Jason Ronallo jnronall@ncsu.edu

Bonus Slides!

Associated content?

  • Linked web pages
  • Replies
  • Videos and other media
  • Retweeting account info
  • Engagement metrics

Availability and access

  • What is the "whole" dataset if it is constantly being revised?
  • How do we redistribute unstable data?
  • How can research results be reproduced?