After three years of work, the Library of Congress has nearly completed its Twitter archive—there's just one problem: sharing the archive with the public.
The LoC started archiving tweets in April 2010 after signing an agreement with Twitter. An update was recently posted on the LoC blog and, as of now, approximately 170 billion tweets have been collected since the microblogging site's inception in 2006.
As the archive continues to grow, the LoC has yet to find a way to share the database. Gayle Osterberg, the Library’s Director of Communications, discussed the status of the project:
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Over 400 researchers have already made requests to access the archive but none have been approved due to the LoC's inability to provide live access, a reality Osterberg described as “an inadequate situation in which to begin offering access to researchers.”
Check out the latest update on the Twitter archive directly from the Library of Congress here.
