Case Study: Science, Medicine, 

Mathematics, and Technology blogs

Background

The mission of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance is to establish, maintain, and advance 

the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of present and future 

generations. The NDSA’s Content Working Group is focusing on investigating guidelines for the 

selection of significant content, discovery of at-risk digital content or collections, and engaging 

all stakeholders in the process of acquiring, preserving, and providing access to the content.

Working group members are developing case studies and/or models to share broadly with all 

stakeholders, from content producers to cultural heritage organizations. The goal of this case 

study is to engage all members of the community in the preservation of content and to 

encourage the cultivation of relationships that could enable preservation. This case study 

addresses at-risk science, medicine, mathematics, and technology blog content. 

About Science, Medicine, Mathematics, and Technology 

blogs

Science, medicine, mathematics, and technology blogs include everything from blogs that 

professionals keep about their personal lives and activities, to open notebook science where 

practitioners are sharing their daily raw notes, to more reflective and commentary based blogs 

by individuals, professional organizations, and institutions. Included also are blogs about 

science, medicine, mathematics, and technology that document the perspectives of the many 

other individuals and groups who engage in these topics, including the voices of citizen science, 

healthcare, science policy, and science news. 

Historical Value

Blogs on topics in science, medicine, technology, and mathematics have significant research 

value for historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of the twenty-first century as they: 

• Reflect and may influence a wide range of viewpoints, and capture dissenting opinions 

and new trends not found in other publications 

• Serve as a record of who did what and when and will serve as a data mine for 

understanding trends in scientific practices and attitudes, and how ideas evolve 

• Provide insight into the environment of science, medicine, technology, and mathematics 

• Show how science, medicine, technology, and mathematics is communicated among 

collaborators and broadly in the scientific community 

Working Together to Preserve the Nation’s Digital Information

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/

December 12, 2013

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Blog content is at risk for loss due to its ephemeral nature. Content may be intentionally or 

unintentionally deleted by the creators of the blog or the service providers who host them. 

Some organizations already engaged in collecting science, medicine, technology, and 

mathematics blogs include the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Library of Congress, U.S. 

National Library of Medicine, National Library of New Zealand, and Smithsonian Institution 

Archives. 

Recognized Opportunities

Social media and blogging platforms don’t readily allow via technical infrastructure ways for 

content creators to easily download and save their own content. Terms of service on social 

media sites often restrict copying for preservation by libraries and archives, even if content 

creators are amenable to preservation. NDSA can work to reach out to content creators and 

publishing platform creators to raise awareness of preservation requirements, and to engage 

stakeholders in selection of important content for preservation.

Target Audiences

Those who will likely find value in this content include: 

• The creators of blogs by practitioners who want long term access to blogs that 

document their work, thought processes, successes, and failures 

• Scholars, including historians, anthropologists, and sociologists who are seeking to 

understand what it was like in the world of science in the early twenty-first century: 

what topics were debated, the controversies, what it was like to be a scientist, how 

scientists worked together, how science and culture intersected, how scientists engaged 

with the public, etc.

• Future practitioners who want to build upon earlier work 

• Professional associations who want to preserve the work, reflections, and 

communication of ideas of their community 

• The creators of the more personal blogs, and their families. Blogs may document 

personal experiences and reflections on life, and are a means of preserving memory. 

This content is similar to analog diaries and journals that are passed down in families, 

and sometimes donated to libraries and archives

• Archivists and librarians whose role it is to preserve the culture of science, medicine, 

technology, and mathematics 

How can we get these stakeholders involved? 

• Creators can be encouraged to take steps to make their blogs more preservation 

friendly 

• Creators may have professional obligations to universities or institutions to create and 

preserve blogs as documentation of their research

• Scholars can share their research based on blogs to convey value in blog preservation 

• Professional associations and universities can communicate to their members the value 

of preserving blogs, and can communicate guidelines and best practices 

• Archivists and librarians can be a resource for best practices and guidelines for personal 

digital archiving 

Working Together to Preserve the Nation’s Digital Information

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/

December 12, 2013

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• Archivists and librarians can collaborate to preserve and make accessible blog content 

that fits within their institutional collection development policies.

• Individuals can share personal experiences and value of using blogs to understand the 

past. These stories will help librarians and archivists persuade communities to take 

action. 

Educating Stakeholders

The NDSA seeks to communicate the need for preservation of blogs on topics in science, 

medicine, technology, and mathematics to stakeholders through multiple venues: 

• Communicate guidelines and best practices to blog creators though personal digital 

archiving efforts/programs, through professional associations with members who both 

create blogs and care about future access of blogs related to their community 

• Support for librarians/archivists who are seeking a better understanding of the tools, 

techniques, and standards for Web archiving

• Work with the decision makers of libraries and archives on the value of blog 

preservation (and web archiving in general)

Obstacles and Risk Factors

Possible risk factors and obstacles in Science, Medicine, Mathematics, and Technology blogs

preservation include: 

• Scope: We will not be able to capture everything we would like. How do we decide what 

to preserve? What can we not preserve? 

• Rights: If we are preserving the blogs of others, do we need permission to capture? 

What if there are multiple authors? Do we need permission to make them publicly 

accessible? ARL Code of Best Practices for fair use might be helpful

• Perceived lack of value: Some bloggers will choose not to take necessary steps to 

preserve their blog; some bloggers may not want to preserve their blogs. It is very 

possible that the historical value of a blog will be unknown until much later, long after 

preservation actions can be taken

• Technical limitations: challenges in preserving social media content with current crawler 

and access tools, and keeping up with bloggers moving to a new platform or URL.

• Limited resources: Libraries/archives with programs archiving web content outside their 

domain are best positioned to preserve this content. Are resources sufficient to support 

this work broadly? 

• Archival collection development practices that focus on the acquisition of collections at 

the end of a donor's career or life

• Funding for digital preservation may not be readily available

• Standards: There are many different and varied digital preservation strategies which 

make it more difficult to educate stakeholders

• Awareness: Different levels of understanding among scientists about the importance of 

preservation 

Working Together to Preserve the Nation’s Digital Information

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/

December 12, 2013

3
Actionable Items

The NDSA and identified stakeholders have an opportunity to address the concerns outlined in 

this case study. Some ideas that have emerged from discussions within the Content Working 

Group include:

• Create a registry of science, medicine, technology, and mathematics blogs and identify

which ones are currently being preserved. This will allow libraries and archives to avoid 

or at least know about duplication of effort

• Promote principles of personal digital archiving. Are there clear and simple guidelines 

and best practices for blog authors to follow if they want to take action to preserve their 

blogs? (Limitations: Some blog authors will not have the resources, time, expertise, or 

incentive to act to archive their own content. These blogs would be at a higher risk for 

loss. Even if a copy of blog is saved on author’s own computer, it will likely be a 

preservation concern later down the road if the creator does not migrate data over time 

to new media or systematically make copies of the updated content. Public access to 

blog content preserved by individuals may also be limited) 

• Collaborate with the producers of major blogging platforms, like WordPress, Blogger, 

and Moveable Type, with large numbers of subscribers, to promote best practices for 

personal blog preservation and potentially match the blog to a host institution for long 

term preservation. (Limitations: Would miss content not available through major 

blogging platforms and from those that do not opt-in.) The NDSA Content Working 

Group Blog Preservation Action Team has already taken steps toward developing a 

plugin to allow for blog authors to opt-in for preservation

• Create opportunities for bloggers to connect with organizations and institutions that can 

preserve their content

For more information, to provide feedback, or to get involved, contact ndsa@loc.gov (please 

include the subject line: Content Case Studies).

Working Together to Preserve the Nation’s Digital Information

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/

December 12, 2013

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