Library of Congress curbs archival of tweets

The Library of Congress announced Tuesday that it will no longer archive every single public tweet that passes through the Twittersphere.

In 2010, the Library of Congress signed an agreement with Twitter that allowed the library to begin meticulously archiving all public tweets, including opinion threads, celebrity musings, and college student status updates. The company gave the library a backlog of tweets spanning from Twitter’s inception in 2006. Starting Jan. 1, the library said it will only archive tweets on a “selective basis.”

The library said in a statement that it felt compelled to tap into the social conversation for the “same reason it collects other materials — to acquire and preserve a record of knowledge and creativity for Congress and the American people.”

The library said it decided to halt the massive Twitter archive, in part, due to Twitter’s changing landscape. The library only archives text from Tweets, but tweets are now increasingly photo and GIF-based.

“Tweets now are often more visual than textual, limiting the value of textonly collecting,” the library said in the statement.

So will your tweets about #HumpDay still make the archive cut? Probably not, according to a statement from the library.

“Generally, the tweets collected and archived will be thematic and event-based, including events such as elections, or themes of ongoing national interest, e.g. public policy,” the library said in a statement.

The library said there is no timetable for when the collection will be available to the public.