Current Thinking on Digital Preservation: Role of Metadata Oya Y. Rieger Coordinator, Library Office of Distributed Learning Cornell University Library May 2000

what is preservation metadata?

Digital Preservation Managed activities to ensure continued access to digital materials in the face of rapidly changing technological and organizational elements

networks TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATION stakeholders money staff policies legal system politics

Preservation Service: Challenges Combination of managerial, computational, practical, philosophical issues Nested configuration of technical infrastructure computer-enforceablehuman-enforceable

file format, compression, encryption, etc. storage medium, file naming, directory structuring, storage conditions, etc. storage media drive, storage management software server: computer, retrieval software, scripts, programs, OS client: computer, software networks distributed protocols, programs, etc. Integrity Contextual integrity Provenance Usability and references

Preservation Service: Goals Detect preservation threats and take action Facilitate preservation administration Promote preventive measures to reduce risks All roads lead to metadata …

Preservation Metadata Knowledge-base necessary to support preservation administration Organizational Strategies technology management Technical Strategies: enduring care, refreshing, migration, emulation, technology preservation, digital archeology.

Preservation Metadata 1)Extensible metadata  Cover all types of digital objects  Accommodate different technological implementations  Meet needs of different communities

people institutions life cycle digital information create and manage determine manifested in metadata 1. Extensible Metadata

Preservation Metadata 1)Extensible metadata  Cover all types of digital objects  Accommodate different technological implementations  Meet needs of different communities 2)Effective metadata  Cost-effective  Just-for-preservation

2. Effective Metadata digital object incomplete metadata missing programs software incompatibility or obsolescence unauthorized and undocumented changes viruses operator errors technical and mechanical failures mismanagement and negligence reference context provenance fixity representation PRESERVATION METADATA PRESERVATION POLICIES

Current Preservation Metadata Research Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Cedars, Pandora, NEDLIB, National Library of the Netherlands OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata NISO Committee on Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images

Ingest Access Administration Archival Storage Data Management producerconsumer management OAIS

Content Information AIP OAIS Archival Information Package Preservation Description Information Reference Information Provenance Information Context Information Fixity Information packaging information Data Object Representation Information

Current Preservation Metadata Research Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Cedars, Pandora, NEDLIB, National Library of the Netherlands OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata NISO Committee on Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images

Concluding Thoughts Focus of preservation metadata is more on “dictionaries” than “functionality” There is insufficient empirical data on loss and a lack of consensus on “essence” Librarians, IT specialists, researchers, and archivist are learning to communicate & collaborate Digital preservation research is getting very trendy … especially “digital asset management” European and Australian projects are highly coordinated US projects are very diverse – little coordination but a good level of information sharing Emphasis on third party certified archives We cannot preserve everything!