Resumo

The Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is committed to engaging a broad audience in discussions about the importance of preserving born digital content that provides a record of out time. To this end, NDIIPP has invested in a number of social media outlets to exchange information about preservation of electronic records, publications, websites and a a wide assortment of digital content. This presentation outlines how NDIIPP has used these outlets and discusses the impact of these efforts. Special attention is devoted to the program blog, The Signal, which began publishing on May 31, 2011. The blog has become an essential medium for sharing information about Library of Congress digital preservation activities, as well as for communicating details about current policies, practices and standards in use in archives, libraries and other repositories around the world. Over the course of a year, The Signal has published nearly 300 posts, received over 600 comments, and registered about 300,000 page views. In terms of the digital preservation community overall, these bulk measures represent a successful outreach effort. This success is extended still further when considering the broad audience the blog has engaged, which include digital preservation experts, as well as government employees, professional photographers, artists, archivists, records managers and many members of the public. Given the recognized value of outreach in the archival and library community – particularly with regard to building support for sustaining digital preservation efforts – the NDIIPP experience with social media may provide useful insight.