There have been a couple of publications that have hit the world recently and we wanted to make sure everyone was aware. Each link is followed by an excerpt from the corresponding announcement and my 2 cents.
Over, Under, Around, and Through: Getting Around Barriers to EAD Implementation by OCLC Research
From the announcement: “This report frames obstacles that archivists have experienced adopting Encoded Archival Description. It also suggests pathways to help you get out of the ruts, around the roadblocks, and on the road to success. The objective of the report is to communicate EAD’s value as a key element of successful archival information systems and help you overcome potential barriers to its implementation.”
I like how this report lays out potential roadblocks on both the organizational and technical sides. It seems too often that literature from the field ignores organizational issues, and the “Political and Logistical Issues” section of this report tackles this issue nicely. Nice job!
A Guide to Distributed Digital Preservation by the Educopia Institute
From the announcement: “This volume is devoted to the broad topic of distributed digital preservation, a still-emerging field of practice for the cultural memory arena. Replication and distribution hold out the promise of indefinite preservation of materials without degradation, but establishing effective organizational and technical processes to enable this form of digital preservation is daunting. Institutions need practical examples of how this task can be accomplished in manageable, low-cost ways.”
This is a big volume and I have not had a chance to completely delve into yet, but it looks like a very complete guide to Private LOCKSS Networks and Distributed Digital Preservation, including technical, organizational, and copyright considerations. Like the report above, I love the comprehensive vision. I have printed it and it now sits on my nighttime reading pile, further attesting my commitment to being the best nerd I can be.
New Archivist 
Thanks for promoting the Guide Lance, and being such a cool nerd…this is that publication I mentioned in an email a while back ago that I was looking forward to getting published. It was so much fun collaborating on this book with the folks at the Cooperative. Let me know what you think…you should write a review or something. You’ve got great insight and sensibility into the technical and philosophical issues addressed in it, having been at ICPSR!
Hey Matt, thanks for the comment. I put you and the Guide together like a week after I had added it to the list of resources for our workshop. In my original draft of the post I gave you a shout-out, but I removed it because I did not want people to get the impression I was linking to it as a favor. It looks great and I will take your suggestion on writing a review when I compete it. As a heads up, I am totally going to send you an email soon asking you to write a post on getting published! I am also in the process of requesting that we buy a copy of the Guide here at work so you can get some of those sweet archival literature residuals 🙂
…And thank you for giving our report a plug! We really struggled with putting both the social and technical barriers into one document and how to balance that, since they are really apples and oranges. I’m glad it worked for you!
Hi Merrilee, and thank you for your comment. One of the things that I am learning at my job is how the organizational/social and technical side may be very different but are both vital. EAD, like some of the digital preservation solutions we have at work, are technical in nature. However, without organizational buy-in and support they simply will not work, no matter how well the code is written. I think the report does a great job of balancing the two and I hope similar, future publications will follow suit. Thanks again!