Preservation Metadata Initiatives and Standards

JISC Seminar on "Digital Media +100 years“

16th September 2009, University of Bristol

David AndersonJanet DelveDan PinchbeckGetaneh Agegn AlemuAntonio Ciuffreda

David AndersonJanet DelveDan PinchbeckGetaneh Agegn AlemuAntonio Ciuffreda

KEEP Team and Partner Institutions

http://www.keep-project.eu

KEEP

� Vision: preserving & facilitating access to digital objects

� Strategy: developing an Emulation Access Platform

� Work packages

KEEP Rationale

� Only emulation can preserve all characteristics of a digital

object� Content, structure, context, appearance and behaviour

(Rothenberg & Bikson, 1999)

� Digital objects have become very complex

� Certain types of objects can not be migrated

� Lack of knowledge about obsolete data carriers

Digital Preservation

� Why digital preservation?

� to ensure protection of information of enduring value for access by

present and future generations (Conway, 1990, p. 206).

� How long digital objects need to be preserved?� How long digital objects need to be preserved?

� Several hundred years (Exon, 1995)

� Digital Media +100 years (JISC, 2009)

� A century (Janée, G., Mathena, J., &Frew, J., 2008 )

� Five years and more! (Verheul, 2006)

The challenges of digital preservation

� It was ‘possible’ to preserve written material over

millennia

� But we struggle to preserve digital information

even for few decades

� The speed of technological change� The speed of technological change

� Exponential increase in digital data(born digital)

� Obsolescence

� Withdrawal of institutional support

� Legal issues

Digital Preservation Strategies

� Emulation

� Migration� Refreshing

� Software (File Format) migration

� Bitstream Copying (Replication)� Bitstream Copying (Replication)

� Digital archeology

� Analogue backup

The Paradox of Migration

� Migration compels us to stipulate on behalf of

future generations

� Loosing look-and-feel � dynamic websites, games, databases, executable programs

� Listing significant properties is complex� Listing significant properties is complex

� Reliance on standards and formats

Migration vs Emulation

� Jeff Rothenberg

� David Bearman

� Michael Day

Bearman, D. (1999). Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records. D-Lib Magazine, 5(4).

Rothenberg, J. (1999). Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital

Preservation. Council on Library and Information Resources.

Metadata is crucial for any preservation strategy

� Digital information is plagued by:� Short media life

� Obsolete hardware & software

� Defunct websites (Chen, 2001)

Technology mediated access with a vengeance� Technology mediated access with a vengeance

� We can not control change but we can have good metadata

� So we need metadata for digital preservation

Preservation metadata

� Metadata is a “structured information that

describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes

it easier to retrieve, use or manage an

information resource.” (NISO, 2004)

Focus has been on descriptive/bibliographic � Focus has been on descriptive/bibliographic

metadata

� Information that supports and documents the long-

term preservation of digital objects

(Lavoie and Gartner, 2005, p.2; OCLC/RLG, 2005).

Benefits of Preservation Metadata

� enables a digital object to become self-

documenting over time

(Lavoie and Gartner, 2005, p.6).

� supports to maintain:

� Viability� Viability

� Renderability

� Understandability

� Authenticity

� Identity

(Woodyard-Robinson, 2006)Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone

Types of Information for Preservation Metadata

� provenance information/custodial history

� authenticity information

preservation activity� preservation activity

� technical environment

� rights management

Source: (Lavoie and Gartner, 2005; Caplan, 2009)

Metadata for Authenticity

� Authenticity refers to “the quality of being what it purports to be”

(OCLC/RLG, 2005, p.4-6)

� Digital objects that lack fixity, integrity and authenticity “are of

little value to repositories”little value to repositories” (OCLC/RLG, 2005, p.4-5)

� Fixity can be ensured if only the object is unchanged

throughout its archival life cycle

Open Archival Information System (OAIS)

� OAIS is an organization of people and systems

� Preservation & access for a designated community

� CCSDS Blue Book 650.0-B-1:2002; ISO 14721: 2003; Pink Book: 2009

OAIS Information Model

What does it take to be OAIS Compliant?

� Use common concepts and terminologies

� Fulfil six mandatory responsibilities

� negotiating and accepting information from producers

� having enough mandate on the information� having enough mandate on the information

� determine designated community

� ensure understandability and usability of the content

� using appropriate policies and procedures

� ensuring availability of the preserved information

The RLG WG on Preservation Metadata

� An earlier effort (1997/98)

� A set of 16 metadata elements

for digital images

� Aimed at access and

preservation

� Not widely adopted

� But contributed to the

development of PREMIS

The NLA PANDORA Logical Data Model

� The PANDORA project was

initiated by NLA in 1996 � Ensuring long-term access to

significant Australian on-line

publications.

� High level entities� High level entities� Identification

� Persistent identifier

� Selection and negotiation

� Capture

� Preservation

� Rights management and access

control

Preservation Metadata Standards Framework (National Library of New Zealand)

Networked European Deposit Library (NEDLIB)

� Funded by the European Commission's Telematics

Applications Programme (1998-2000)

� Led by the National Library of the Netherlands

Developed the Deposit System for Electronic Publications � Developed the Deposit System for Electronic Publications

(DSEP)

� DSEP adopted the OAIS functions

� Defined NEDLIB Metadata Elements

NEDLIB Metadata Elements

Networked European Deposit Library (NEDLIB)

Metadata Elements

CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives(Cedars)

� Cedars was a JISC funded project in the UK from 2001-2002

(Universities of Cambridge, Leeds & Oxford)

� Cedars developed a metadata specification for long-term

preservation of digital objectspreservation of digital objects

� Cedars based its metadata schema on OAIS information model

� Cedars was invited by OCLC/RLG PREMIS WG

Cedars Metadata Elements

CEDARS Metadata Elements (Based on: Stone & Day, 1999, p. 2)

PReservation Metadata Implementation Strategies

� From theory to practice

� OCLC/RLG working group (>30 international

experts) in 2003

PREMIS Data Dictionary(2005; 2008)� PREMIS Data Dictionary(2005; 2008)

� Core & implementable

� Neutrality

� 2005 DPC award winner

Can’t Environment be an entity in its own right?

EnvironmentEnvironment

PREMIS Data Dictionary

PREMIS Data Dictionary

LMER (Long-term preservation Metadata for Electronic Resources)

LMER metadata elements (Based on: Steinke, 2005)

LMER (Long-term preservation Metadata for Electronic Resources)

LMER metadata elements (Based on: Steinke, 2005)

Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard

MODS in METS

Source: http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/louis.xml

PREMIS in METS

Source: http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/louis.xml

PREMIS in METS

Source: http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/louis.xml

Format Registries

Metadata for Emulation Framework

� Analyse state-of-the-art

� Avoid duplication

� Interoperability

� Metadata management

Thank you for listening!

For comments email: Getaneh.Alemu@port.ac.ukUniversity of Portsmouth, UK

Thank you for listening!