According to the Library of Congress’s web site, every tweet ever tweeted since March of 2006 will now be housed by the Library.
The digital archive will encompass the roughly 50 million tweets per day, reaching a number in billions already.
Matt Raymond, the Library’s Director of Communications since October 2006, posted on the LOC’s site that he believes the archives will improve our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
The Twitterblog posted April 14 that the site also believes the archiving will have a positive global impact. Specific arrangements surrounding the deal include a six-month delay for archiving Tweets, archiving of public Tweets only and the use of Tweets for internal library use, public display by the library itself, non-commercial research and general preservation for historical reference.
Raymond noted that further information regarding the deal would later be released, emphasizing the scholarly aspects involved.