Two words: social media. It’s a problem for government recordkeepers. Do we trust the Facebooks, the Twitters and the Flickrs of the world to manage our information for us? They feed on data after all, provide the best platform for viewing and accessing that information, and aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon. Or do we try to capture social media records into our internal recordkeeping systems? To bring it home so we can control it better. And if we do, how? By using third party applications? Export functionality native to social media platforms? Print screen? Copy and paste into a spreadsheet?

Social Media apps by Jason Howie  CC0 1.0

QSA is taking another look at its advice on recordkeeping for social media. So far we’ve put out three targeted Public Records Briefs and have touched on the topic in other places as well:

• Social media and public records
• Recordkeeping and blogs
• Capturing short messages

We’ve been quite cautious up till now in recommending processes and tools. But we know the sandpit is a bit dirty and we think it’s time to start playing in it. We want to come up with practical advice for agencies that will help them to get good, useful records of their social media presence as well as meet their requirements under the Public Records Act.

We’ve got some ideas we’re mulling over. But where do you think we should start? Should we update and combine our current advice or keep it separate? What’s working well for you at the moment? What are you particularly worried about? Tell us your good news stories. Cry on our shoulder too if you like. We’re listening…