Reading notes digital preservation

Muddiest Point: none this week


Main requirements of OAIS

1. provide long-term persistence of digital information
2. ensure access to that information
3. negotiaite for and accept appropriate information from information producers.
4. determine the scope of the archives user community
5. ensure that the preserved information can be understood by users without the assistance of the information producer.
6. make the preserved information available to the user community.

An OAIS must retain sufficient intellectual property rights, along with custody of the information in order to guarentee preservation of those materials. The three distinct parts: the producer of the information, the managers of the information, and the consumers of the information. Managers provides strategic planning, defining the scope of the collections, and ensuring preservation of materials. Producers submit the information to be preserved and associated metadata for ingest. Consumers are the users of the information.

The OAIS function model is a collection of 6 high-level services, or functional components that taken together fulfill the OAIS duel function of providing access and preservation. Those components are
1. ingest - the set of processes responsible for accepting information submitted by producers.
2. archival storage - part of the system that handles long-term storage and maintenance of ingested information.
3. data management - maintains a a database of descriptive metadata identifying and describing the archived information in support of the OASI's finding aids.
4. Preservation planning - responsible for mapping out the OAIS's preservation strategy.
5. Access - manages the the processes and services by which consumers locate, request, and receive delivery of items residing in the OAIS.
6. Administration - day to day management and coordinating the previous five elements.

There are many research challenges associated with long-term preservation in the digital realm. Traditional practices for preservation seem to be insufficient for use in the digital realm. Reasons for the need for a paradigm shift in digital preservation include
1. Traditional digital preservation tools can no longer keep pace with the complexity and dynamic mulit-media digital objects.
2. If long-term preservation is going to span decades the threat of interrupted management of digital objects is critical.
3. There are no formal models for dealing with the economic, social, technical aspects of preserving digital materials over time.
4. New tools and technologies are needed to streamline many of the processes associated with digital preservation and that support human decision-making.
5. Infrastructure needs to be created so that digital preservation becomes sustainable and effective.