Innovation & public service today, for tomorrow: North Carolina’s state government social media...

Innovation & public service today, for tomorrow:

North Carolina’s state government social media archiving and access

program

North Carolina Department of Cultural ResourcesKelly Eubank Amy Rudersdorf

[email protected] [email protected]

North Carolina’s government record

2From left: Letter to Lords Proprietors to Carolina’s colonial governors, 17th century; Carolina Parakeet by Audobon, 19th century North Carolina session laws, 1817; Tweet announcing NC DOA’s Facebook presence, made by Governor’s office on September 16th, 2009.)

The program: 10,000 foot view

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The program: 1,000 foot view

Free clip art images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Why archive North Carolina’s

state government social media and

online web presence?

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Legislative mandatePreserve state government information in any format and make it accessible to the citizens of North Carolina

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Public serviceProvide free access to electronic records that are available 24/7 from a single online location


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Resource savingsRecords retention schedules require agencies to save social media interactions. Centralizing this activity saves time, money, and people.


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E-discoveryDigital information, like its analog counterpart, must remain authentic, readable, and unchanged to be entered as evidence in a court of law.Luckily, libraries and archives have been in the permanence business for a long time.And, we continue to be.

Some rights reserved. http://www.flickr.com/photos/orphum/2494150348/

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Reinterpretation & retention

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• A “daily bulletin” according to the retention schedules for local and municipal law enforcement.

• Could also become part of a case file, and as such, will need to comply with appropriate judicial retention schedules, as well.

State government’s historical recordIt doesn’t have to be bound and published or written on paper to be important.Electronic information, though fleeting by nature, has great value to society.

Clockwise from top right: NC Executive Order 23 announced on Twitter, 2009; First gubernatorial website. James B. Hunt, Jr. September 24, 2001; Crime Commission initiatives, 2004; Scorecard On Crime and Justice in North Carolina, 2003.

Ensuring democracy• Primary documentary

sources, like the Declaration of Independence, continue to be the foundation upon which our democracy is based.

• We can’t predict which electronic documents might influence our democracy in the future. If we don’t save them, none of them will.

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History of state’s culture & resources

Left: Wrightsville Beach at sunset (Flickr, Department of Commerce, 2012). Right: Three generations of Tranthams sing last song at State Fair after more than 30 years (YouTube, Department of Agriculture, 2008)

North Carolina Barbecue

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North Carolina’s social media archiving and

access program began in 2009.

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Program inception1935, 1973, 1987. Legislative mandates2008.

- Increased focus on transparency in government, state agencies encouraged to utilize social media- Governor’s office expressed strong interest and support

2009. - Spring. First harvest Governor’s social media- Fall. Government-wide harvest of social media- DCR creates “Best Practices for Social Media Usage in North Carolina State Government” (pdf, videos) - December. Governor announces program on Twitter

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StatisticsNearly 200 North Carolina state government social media sites at least five times per year

• 67 Facebook pages

• 55 Twitter feeds

• 28 YouTube channels

• 28 blogs

• 17 Flickr accounts

• 1 Linked-In account

• 1 Google+ account

Over 15 million documents, 2.5 TB of social media content

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A job this bigis not without

challenges.

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Considerations for sustainability• Social media is in constant flux

• State agencies link to more than government websites

• 33 state agencies with their own management, culture, objectives

• Social media accounts come and go

• Communicating guidelines and records retention requirements not always straightforward

• Limitations on funding, staff, storage, etc.

By redghia69 for shirtwoot! (http://shirt.woot.com/derby/entry/13433/herding-cats)

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North Carolina’s program is unique, innovative, and an

example of leadership

and collaboration.20

North Carolina is INNOVATIVE• Intra-agency collaboration

• Public access to preserved content

• Permanent, long-term records of the workings of state government and civic engagement

• Assurance that agencies can capitalize on social media networking with no records retention concerns

• Proactive approach to solving challenges that will continue to grow


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North Carolina is UNIQUE• First state to harvest social media

(March 2009)

• Combined with our website preservation program, ours is the longest-running state government web harvesting program in the nation (since 1996!)

• Harvesting content from all 33 state agencies, North Carolina’s social media program has a broad scope

• Most complete snapshot of state e-government in existence 22

North Carolina is a LEADERInvited advisors and participants on social media preservation working groups at the state and federal level discussing multi-national corporations, terms of service agreements, and more

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A few considerations

for local implementation.

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DIY requirements• Funding. North Carolina works with

a vendor to harvest, store, and provide access to the data

• Staffing. Monthly harvesting, site monitoring, communications requires ~1.5 FTE

• Storage. While vendor keeps a copy of the data, a second copy must be stored on site, ideally online

• Administrative oversight. The more the better to get (and keep) the word out


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Final thoughts on North Carolina’s

social media archive and access

program.

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Social media archiving and access program is

• Centrally managed to alleviate records retention concerns at the agency level

• Easily replicable with minimal funding and staffing

• First and longest running program in the nation

• Using well tested library and archives concepts in new and innovative ways to ensure records retention is safe, stable, and authentic

• 24/7 service provides outstanding access to today’s history now and in the future.

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State government has fundamentally changed. . .

. . .and, North Carolina is capturing and preserving that change, as it happens, for her citizens today and tomorrow.

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