Preserving Social Media: Opening a Multi-Disciplinary Dialogue

Digital artefacts generated through use of social media tools have potential long-term value to individuals, organizations and societies. If there is a desire to systematically collect and preserve accounts of daily life, government activities, and societies’ documentary heritage, archival approaches must account for changing information systems—the tools, policies, and practices through which we engage in the contemporary information ecosystem. Through this paper we argue that in light of the growing complexity of digital information practices, particularly in relation to the use of social media, archivists need look to the scholarship of design and planning, in particular the work of human computer interaction designers. In turn, the designers of digital information systems need to engage, draw upon, support, challenge and inform contemporary archival theory and practice. Authors Lisa P. Nathan is an Assistant Professor at The University of British Columbia‘s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (the iSchool@UBC). Since 2010, she has served as the Coordinator for the school’s First Nations Curriculum Concentration. Her research is motivated by the high potential for interactions with information systems to have a long-term influence on the human condition. Through a range of projects she investigates theory and method related to the design of information systems that address long-term societal challenges; information practices that develop and adapt as we use these systems; and factors that influence the sustainability of these systems over time. Elizabeth Shaffer is a doctoral candidate at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (the iSchool@UBC) from which she received a Master of Archival Studies degree. Her dissertation research is at the intersection of social media and archival theory focusing on the preservation, policy and recordkeeping challenges posed by information and communication technologies, in particular social media. Her work aims to build on existing archival theory and practice to inform policy on social media use and records management and preservation.