Preservation metadata

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Preservation metadata is item level information that describes the context and structure of a digital object. It provides background details pertaining to a digital object's provenance, authenticity, and environment. Preservation metadata, is a specific type of metadata that works to maintain a digital object's viability while ensuring continued access by providing contextual information, usage details, and rights. [1] [2]

Contents

As an increasing portion of the world’s information output shifts from analog to digital form, preservation metadata is an essential component of most digital preservation strategies, including digital curation, data management, digital collections management and the preservation of digital information over the long-term. It is an integral part of the data lifecycle [3] and helps to document a digital object’s authenticity while maintaining usability across formats. [3]

Definition of Preservation Metadata

Metadata surrounds and describes physical, digitized, and born-digital information objects. Preservation metadata is external metadata related to a digital object created after a resource has been separated from its original creator, [2] with value-added. [1] The item-level data further stores technical details on the format, structure and uses of a digital resource, along with the history of all actions performed on the resource. These technical details include changes and decisions regarding digitization, migration to other formats, authenticity information such as technical features or custody history, and the rights and responsibilities information. [4] In addition, preservation metadata may include information on the physical condition of a resource.

Preservation metadata is dynamic, accessibility focused, and should provide the following information: details about files and instructions for use, documentation of all updates or actions that have been performed on an object, object provenance and details pertaining to current and future custody; details of the individual(s) who are responsible for the preservation of the object and changes made to it. [5]

Components of Metadata

Types of Metadata Creation

Uses of Preservation Metadata

Digital materials require constant maintenance and migration to new formats to accommodate evolving technologies and varied user needs. In order to survive into the future, digital objects need preservation metadata that exists independently from the systems which were used to create them. Without preservation metadata, digital material will be lost. “While a print book with a broken spine can be easily re-bound, a digital object that has become corrupted or obsolete is often impossible (or prohibitively expensive) to repair”. [7] Preservation metadata provides the vital information which will make “digital objects self-documenting across time.” [6] Data maintenance is considered a key piece of collections maintenance [8] by ensuring the availability of a resource over time, a concept detailed in the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). OAIS is a broad conceptual model which many organizations have followed in developing new preservation metadata element sets [9] and Archival Information Packages (AIP). [9] Early projects in preservation metadata in the library community include CEDARS, NEDLIB, The National Library of Australia and the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata. [4] The ongoing work of maintaining, supporting, and coordinating future revisions to the PREMIS Data Dictionary is undertaken by the PREMIS Editorial Committee, hosted by the Library of Congress. [6] Preservation metadata provides continuity and contributes to the validity and authenticity of a resource by providing evidence of changes, adjustments and migrations. [10]

The importance of preservation metadata is further indicated by its required inclusion in many Data Management Plans (DMPs) which are often key pieces of applications for grants and government funding. [3]

Considered by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) to be a subtype of administrative metadata, preservation metadata is used to promote:

Complications of Preservation Metadata

Concern over the poor management of digital objects notes the possibility of a "digital dark age". [3] Many institutions, including the Digital Curation Center (DCC) and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) are working to create access to digital objects while ensuring their continued viability. In the NDSA’s Version 1 of the Levels of Digital Preservation, preservation metadata is grouped under Level Four, or "Repair your metadata", part of the macro preservation plan intended to make objects available over the long term. [12]

The differing uses of digital resources across space, time and institutions requires that one object or set of information be accessible in a variety of formats, [13] with the creation of new preservation metadata in each iteration. [1] Anne Gilliland notes that these variations create the need for wider data standards that can be used within and across industries that will then result in further use and interoperability. [1] The value of interoperability is further validated by the expense, both temporal and financial, of metadata creation. [1]

The creation of preservation metadata by multiple users or institutions can complicate issues of ownership, access and responsibility. [14] Depending on an institution’s mission, it may be difficult or outside the scope of responsibility to perform preservation while providing access. Further research into cross-institutional collaboration may provide greater insight into where data should be stored, and who should be managing it. [14] Scholar Maggie Fieldhouse notes that the creation of metadata is shifting from collections managers to suppliers and publishers. [15] Jerome McDonough identifies the benefits of multiple partners collaborating to improve metadata records around an object with preservation metadata as a key in cross-institutional communication. [16] Sheila Corrall notes that the creation and management of preservation metadata represents the intersection between libraries, IT management and archival practice. [8]

Developments in Preservation Metadata

Preservation metadata is a new and developing field. The OAIS Reference Model is a broad conceptual model which many organizations have followed in developing new preservation metadata element sets. [9] Early projects in preservation metadata in the library community include CEDARS, NEDLIB, The National Library of Australia and the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata. [4] The ongoing work of maintaining, supporting, and coordinating future revisions to the PREMIS Data Dictionary is undertaken by the PREMIS Editorial Committee, hosted by the Library of Congress. [6]

ARCHANGEL

Recent developments in blockchain technology and the need for verifiable sources have led to the pilot program ARCHANGEL to use blockchain in the archival space. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin Core</span> Standardized set of metadata elements

The Dublin Core, also known as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES), is a set of fifteen main metadata items for describing digital or physical resources. The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is responsible for formulating the Dublin Core; DCMI is a project of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), a non-profit organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Archives Initiative</span> Informal organisation

The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) was an informal organization, in the circle around the colleagues Herbert Van de Sompel, Carl Lagoze, Michael L. Nelson and Simeon Warner, to develop and apply technical interoperability standards for archives to share catalogue information (metadata). The group got together in the late late 1990s and was active for around twenty years. OAI coordinated in particular three specification activities: OAI-PMH, OAI-ORE and ResourceSync. All along the group worked towards building a "low-barrier interoperability framework" for archives containing digital content to allow people harvest metadata. Such sets of metadata are since then harvested to provide "value-added services", often by combining different data sets.

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a protocol developed for harvesting metadata descriptions of records in an archive so that services can be built using metadata from many archives. An implementation of OAI-PMH must support representing metadata in Dublin Core, but may also support additional representations.

In library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. It involves planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods and technologies, and it combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and "born-digital" content, regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time. The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Preservation and Reformatting Section of the American Library Association, defined digital preservation as combination of "policies, strategies and actions that ensure access to digital content over time." According to the Harrod's Librarian Glossary, digital preservation is the method of keeping digital material alive so that they remain usable as technological advances render original hardware and software specification obsolete.

An institutional repository is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminating digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution. Academics also utilize their IRs for archiving published works to increase their visibility and collaboration with other academics However, most of these outputs produced by universities are not effectively accessed and shared by researchers and other stakeholders As a result Academics should be involved in the implementation and development of an IR project so that they can learn the benefits and purpose of building an IR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fedora Commons</span>

Fedora is a digital asset management (DAM) content repository architecture upon which institutional repositories, digital archives, and digital library systems might be built. Fedora is the underlying architecture for a digital repository, and is not a complete management, indexing, discovery, and delivery application. It is a modular architecture built on the principle that interoperability and extensibility are best achieved by the integration of data, interfaces, and mechanisms as clearly defined modules.

The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management and improved support for teaching and research. In collaboration with the ten University of California Libraries and other partners, CDL assembled one of the world's largest digital research libraries. CDL facilitates the licensing of online materials and develops shared services used throughout the UC system. Building on the foundations of the Melvyl Catalog, CDL has developed one of the largest online library catalogs in the country and works in partnership with the UC campuses to bring the treasures of California's libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations to the world. CDL continues to explore how services such as digital curation, scholarly publishing, archiving and preservation support research throughout the information lifecycle.

An Open Archival Information System is an archive, consisting of an organization of people and systems, that has accepted the responsibility to preserve information and make it available for a Designated Community. The OAIS model can be applied to various archives, e.g., open access, closed, restricted, "dark", or proprietary.

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) was established to help solve the extensive challenges of digital preservation and digital curation and to lead research, development, advice, and support services for higher education institutions in the United Kingdom.

The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) is a metadata standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The standard is maintained as part of the MARC standards of the Library of Congress, and is being developed as an initiative of the Digital Library Federation (DLF).

Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification (TRAC) is a document describing the metrics of an OAIS-compliant digital repository that developed from work done by the OCLC/RLG Programs and National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) task force initiative.

Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection, and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains, and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. This is often accomplished by archivists, librarians, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to use digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes. Successful digital curation will mitigate digital obsolescence, keeping the information accessible to users indefinitely. Digital curation includes digital asset management, data curation, digital preservation, and electronic records management.

PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) is the de facto digital preservation metadata standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metadata</span> Data about data

Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:

A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection, is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital media formats or a library accessible through the internet. Objects can consist of digitized content like print or photographs, as well as originally produced digital content like word processor files or social media posts. In addition to storing content, digital libraries provide means for organizing, searching, and retrieving the content contained in the collection. Digital libraries can vary immensely in size and scope, and can be maintained by individuals or organizations. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. These information retrieval systems are able to exchange information with each other through interoperability and sustainability.

A metadata standard is a requirement which is intended to establish a common understanding of the meaning or semantics of the data, to ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of the data by its owners and users. To achieve this common understanding, a number of characteristics, or attributes of the data have to be defined, also known as metadata.

Data curation is the organization and integration of data collected from various sources. It involves annotation, publication and presentation of the data such that the value of the data is maintained over time, and the data remains available for reuse and preservation. Data curation includes "all the processes needed for principled and controlled data creation, maintenance, and management, together with the capacity to add value to data". In science, data curation may indicate the process of extraction of important information from scientific texts, such as research articles by experts, to be converted into an electronic format, such as an entry of a biological database.

Islandora is a free and open-source software digital repository system based on Drupal and integrating with additional applications, including Fedora Commons. It is open source software. Islandora was originally developed at the University of Prince Edward Island by the Robertson Library and is now maintained by the Islandora Foundation, which has a mission to, "promote collaboration through transparency and consensus building among Islandora community members, and to steward their shared vision for digital curation features through a body of software and knowledge."

File fixity is a digital preservation term referring to the property of a digital file being fixed, or unchanged. Fixity checking is the process of verifying that a digital object has not been altered or corrupted. During transfer, a repository may run a fixity check to ensure a transmitted file has not been altered en route. Within the repository, fixity checking is used to ensure that digital files have not been affected by data rot, or other digital preservation dangers. By itself, fixity checking does not ensure the preservation of a digital file. Instead, it allows a repository to identify which corrupted files to replace with a clean copy from the producer or from a backup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audiovisual archives</span>

In archives, the term "audiovisual" is frequently used generically to denote materials other than written documents. Films, videos, audio recordings, pictures, and other audio and visual media are collected in audiovisual archives. A vast amount of knowledge is included in audiovisual records, which are considered cultural treasures and must be preserved for future use. Print materials would not have the same reach across various audiences as audiovisual resources.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Gilliland, A.J. (2016). Setting the Stage: An Introduction to Metadata, Third Edition. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.
  2. 1 2 3 Mitchell, E (2015). Metadata Standards and Web Services in Libraries, Archives and Museums: An Active Learning Resource. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited. ISBN   978-1610694490.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Poole, A.H. (2016). "The conceptual landscape of digital curation". Journal of Documentation. 72 (5): 961–986. doi:10.1108/JD-10-2015-0123.
  4. 1 2 3 "Preservation Metadata". National Library of Australia. 2011-08-24. Archived from the original on 2011-08-24. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  5. ↑ Woodyard, D. (April 2002). "Metadata and preservation". Information Services & Use. 22 (2–3): 121–125. doi:10.3233/ISU-2002-222-311.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "PREMIS: Preservation Metadata Maintenance Activity". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ Lavoie, B.; Dempsey, L. (2004). "Thirteen Ways of Looking at...Digital Preservation". D-Lib Magazine. 10 (7/8). doi: 10.1045/july2004-lavoie .
  8. 1 2 Corrall, S. (2012). Fieldhouse, M.; Marshall, A. (eds.). Collection Development in the Digital Age. Facet Publishing. pp. 3–25. ISBN   978-1856047463.
  9. 1 2 3 Lee, C. (2009). "Open Archival System (OAIS) Reference Model". In Bates, M.J.; Maack, M.N. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition. CRC Press. pp. 4020–4030. ISBN   9780203757635.
  10. ↑ Cook, T. (Spring 1997). "What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift". Archivaria. 43: 17–63.
  11. ↑ "Understanding Metadata: What is Metadata, and What is it For?: A Primer". NISO. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Levels of Digital Preservation". NDSA. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  13. ↑ Borgman, C.L. (2015). Big Data, Little Data, No Data. London: MIT Press. ISBN   9780262529914.
  14. 1 2 Noonan, D.; Chute, T. (2014). "Data Curation and the University Archives". The American Archivist. 77 (1): 201–240. doi:10.17723/aarc.77.1.m49r46526847g587. hdl: 1811/62042 .
  15. ↑ Fieldhouse, M. (2012). "The Process of Collection Management". In Fieldhouse, M.; Marshall, A. (eds.). Collection Development in the Digital Age. Facet Publishing. pp. 27–43. ISBN   978-1856047463.
  16. ↑ McDonough, J.P. (2010). "Packaging Video Games for Long-Term Preservation". Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 62 (1): 171–184. doi: 10.1002/asi.21412 .
  17. ↑ Bell, Mark; Green, Alex; Sheridan, John; Collomosse, John; Cooper, Daniel; Bui, Tu; Thereaux, Olivier; Higgins, Jez (2019-06-26). "Underscoring archival authenticity with blockchain technology". Insights: The UKSG Journal. 32: 21. doi: 10.1629/uksg.470 . ISSN   2048-7754. S2CID   198357364.

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