A case for digital squirrels: Using and preserving YouTube for popular culture research

Authors

  • Lindsay Kistler Mattock
  • Colleen Theisen
  • Jennifer Burek Pierce

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i1.8163

Keywords:

YouTube, preservation, archives, digital scholarship, Web 2.0

Abstract

YouTube users around the globe upload 400 hours of content every 60 seconds, a quantity that leads to descriptions of the platform as “the world’s largest archive of moving images.” We look at how the myth of YouTube as an archive arises and evaluate sources that show its shortcomings in this respect. These discussions ground our recommendations for developing new practices for archiving YouTube content to support scholarly research, a recommendation that starts with a squirrel.

Author Biographies

Lindsay Kistler Mattock

Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, School of Library and Information Science

Colleen Theisen

Outreach and Engagement Librarian in Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Jennifer Burek Pierce

Associate Professor, University of Iowa, School of Library and Information Science

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Published

2017-12-31

How to Cite

Mattock, L. K., Theisen, C., & Burek Pierce, J. (2017). A case for digital squirrels: Using and preserving YouTube for popular culture research. First Monday, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i1.8163