Screenshot of a social media account from a member of Congress. From Library of Congress Web Archives, Congressional Collection.
December 6, 2010 -- The Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is preserving the political record by capturing websites from the House of Representatives, Senate, congressional committees and related entities.
Increasingly, many members of Congress use social media, such as Facebook and YouTube, to communicate with constituents. Information available through these sources is useful for documenting the political process, and the NDIIPP Web Archiving Team is working to identify the variety of social media sites in use and to capture important content.
"The digital communications of public officials are an essential part of our heritage that will be of interest and use to future generations," says Martha Anderson, director of NDIIPP program management.
The most popular social media sites are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Members linked to 17 other social media sites from their official House.gov and Senate.gov pages, including Picasa, Amplify, LinkedIn and MySpace. Only 36 members of the most recent congressional session have abstained from using social media tools. These numbers are as of November 2010.
Screenshot of a social media account from a member of Congress. From Library of Congress Web Archives, Congressional Collection.
- U.S. House of Representatives
Number of members using:
YouTube: 384
Facebook: 303
Twitter: 212
Flickr: 120 - U.S. Senate
Number of members using:
YouTube: 92
Facebook: 54
Twitter: 40
Flickr: 1
