Museums Urged to Collect Social Media as Cultural Heritage in New Routledge Book

At the Digital Collections Summit, Craig Middleton of the State Library of South Australia and Caroline Wilson-Barnao of the University of Queensland presented arguments from their co-authored book, Collecting Social Media in Museums (Routledge, 2025), asserting that museums must begin collecting social media to preserve contemporary history. The book, based on interviews with ten professionals, offers a curatorial perspective and identifies six approaches already in use: automated archiving, donated data, collecting without collecting, direct acquisition from platforms, third-party services, and simulation. Middleton and Wilson-Barnao emphasize that social media objects are cultural artefacts combining digital content with social interaction, making them inherently unstable and challenging to preserve. They outline six guiding principles: acknowledge digital cultural heritage, avoid comprehensive collecting, act promptly, experiment widely, seek consent with a risk-positive approach, and embrace change. The authors highlight ethical and legal challenges, including copyright, consent, privacy, and the right to be forgotten, as well as the rise of synthetic media. They argue that social media is where social history is lived, not just documented, and that museums must act before content disappears. The book is adapted from their summit presentation.