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Abstract

This study analyzes the use of social networks in the Arab national archives, the availability of a strategy for their use (objectives, content), and the numbers and specialization of staff managing and updating the archives’ content on social networks. It also examines which social platforms are used by archives, the number of their participants and followers, and to what extent the content of archives’ social platforms is archived. The study included twelve Arab national archives, as well as examples of foreign archives, to understand their strategy for using social networks. The study found that Arab national archives do not have a specific and declared strategy on the archive’s website or its social media platforms for the use of social networks. Only 54.5 percent of Arab National Archives use social networks; the number of social media platforms used by these twelve Arab national archives is seven platforms compared to eighteen social media platforms used by five foreign national archives. It also found that the most commonly used social media platforms in the Arab national archives are Facebook at 100 percent, YouTube at 50 percent, Twitter at 33.3 percent, LinkedIn at 16.7 percent, Instagram at 8.3 percent, and Google + at 8.3 percent, and that some of the national Aachives have not updated their content on social platforms for two years or more. Among the most important suggestions of the study is the need to develop a social media strategy in the Arab national archives, to diversify the archival content published and shared on social media, and to create a social media team responsible for planning and implementing the archives’ social media strategy.

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