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: Althouse

Everything ever written in Twitter ? every little tweet, from anybody ? is now archived in the Library of Congress.

Is this a wonderful preservation of a rich mine of historical and sociological information or creepy government intrusion into the private domain?

[I]t boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I?m certain we?ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive....

So if you think the Library of Congress is ?just books,? think of this: The Library has been collecting materials from the web since it began harvesting congressional and presidential campaign websites in 2000....

Nerds trying to be hip?

Today we hold more than 167 terabytes of web-based information, including legal blogs, websites of candidates for national office, and websites of Members of Congress.

Including legal blogs.... 

We also operate the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program www.digitalpreservation.gov, which is pursuing a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available significant digital content, especially information that is created in digital form only, for current and future generations.

In other words, if you?re looking for a place where important historical and other information in digital form should be preserved for the long haul, we?re it!

Good. I guess.

ADDED: Jull Weiner says it's "a move that?s clearly intended to out-postmodern MoMA?s acquisition of the @ symbol."

Full post as published by Althouse on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).