I realized while at MARAC at the end of October that I never posted here about the completion and publication of the Interactive Archivist: Case Studies in Utilizing Web 2.0 to Improve the Archival Experience. The brainchild of J. Gordon Daines III and Cory Nimer, this free SAA ePublication only exists online and brings together ten Web 2.0 archivist-oriented case studies covering blogs, mashups, tagging, wikis, Facebook and more. It also includes thorough introductions to each of the technologies covered by case studies, an annotated bibliography and a link to a living list of resources on Delicious.
My contribution to the collection is titled Spellbound Blog: Using Blogs as a Professional Development Opportunity. I don’t spend much time on this blog talking about blogging, so if you ever wanted to know more about why I blog or are considering starting a blog yourself – my case study might be of interest.
Thank you again to Gordon and Cory for including me as part of their project. I think that it is a great contribution to the cultural heritage community at large. These case studies take a wide range of new technologies and make them accessible through real examples and lessons learned. I don’t know about you, but I believe I learn at least 10x as much from someone’s first hand experience than I would from an abstracted explanation of how one might use a new technology. I hope you find the Interactive Archivist as rich a resource as I believe you will.