By

Daniel Chudnov

Slides available at SlideShare

Description

Social media data, like that produced in Twitter, is a rich source for studying how we communicate and exchange ideas on a global scale. Because most social science researchers and students are not trained in software development and working with APIs, however, collecting data can be a painstaking manual process for them. Social Media Manager, a prototype application developed at GW Libraries, automates the collection of data from Twitter’s API and makes it possible for scholars, students, and cultural heritage institution staff to identify, select, collect, and preserve Twitter data for research purposes at little cost. We will review the features of the application, how it can complement third-party services reselling access to historical data, and how we are using it at GW Libraries.
Daniel Chudnov is Director, Scholarly Technology, at the George Washington University Libraries in Washington, DC, and in this role has management responsibilities in all aspects of technology, digitization, software, and systems development and operations at GW Libraries. Prior to working at GW, he was a software developer and project manager at the US Library of Congress, including as technical lead and project manager in the first years of the Twitter Archive project there. Earlier in his career he worked in multiple jobs at the Yale University School of Medicine and also at MIT Libraries.