# Presentation: 326672

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive have a written plan which spells out and justifies its assumptions and practices?**
- Does the archive have a mission statement?
- This defines collection parameters, and annual work plans.
- Is the plan acceptable to the archive sponsor, resource allocator, data creator, certifying board?
- Is there a plan for staging ingestion of data into archive?
- This defines the at-risk components.
- Is there a concept of operations plan for the archive?
- Has a legal authority been defined for the archive to justify retention of data?
- Do you have a governing board for the archive?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Has the archive validated its procedures and capabilities against this implementation standards checklist?**
- Have the legal authority requirements been met?
- Does the archive comply with relevant “NARA / ISO” standards that have become available?
- DOD 5015.2 standard for ingesting office records
- ISO PDTR 15801 draft records management standard
- ISO legal imaging standard or best practices from DLM forum
- Is there a validation plan or audit process that reconfirms the archive compliance over time?
- Are updated versions of the checklist used, that include current best practices?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Is the nature of the interaction of the archive staff with data providers defined?**
- How does the archive help the provider understand the data and meta-data standards to which the provider must/should conform?
- Are guidelines and requirements for preparation and submission of data provided?
- How does the archive support the providers in the data preparation?
- Is training and outreach provided?
- Are required protocols for data ingestion specified?
- Is the accession process for scheduling data access defined?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Can the data ingestion process handle the expected data transfer in a manner acceptable to the provider?**
- Does the data ingestion process scale to handle the expected growth in the data flow?
- Does the data ingestion process support the accepted practices of the provider?
- What types of data ingestion can be supported (formats, data rates)?
- Are the ingestion mechanisms appropriate for the planned data ingestion schedule?
- Is electronic data transfer supported?
- Are expectations set for the sustainable data transfer rates?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive have approaches to insure that the accessioning process maintains the fidelity of the original data?**
- Are mechanisms provided to track fidelity of data?
- Can integrity of data be monitored through checksums, and are the checksum algorithms documented?
- Are data flows tracked to identify sources of error?
- Are content validation mechanisms provided to check the data as received, and after delivery to a user?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Are adequate environmental and security controls provided for the archive?**
- ANSI recommended practices for environmental controls
- Temperature, humidity, dust, ...
- Computer room controls (36 CFR 188)
- Security access controls
- Physical security
- IT security (viruses)
- Backup and disaster recovery
- Physical location of archive (faults, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires)

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive have (and follow) processes to migrate data across media? **
- Are mechanisms provided to check fidelity of information over the life of the archive?
- Are annual checks of readability done (36 CFR 1234)?
- Are certified media used (defined)?
- NARA standard, National Media Lab (nta.org or nml.org)
- Are mechanisms provided to monitor media viability (OAIS criteria)?
- Is automatic error checking done for media (SMART technology)?
- What are the maximum allowed error levels?
- Are best practices followed for archiving to tape?
- Are “stable” technologies used for media?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive have (and follow) processes to migrate data and meta-data across technologies? **
- Do you have a test plan to validate your migration procedures that follows industry best practices?
- Are “stable” IT technologies used in archive generation, preservation and maintenance?
- Are documented formats used for data sets and meta-data?
- Is an information model used to characterize collections?
- Are access mechanisms provided that meet user “leading or cutting edge” expectations?
- Are you monitoring your user community access requirements?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive make its data and services known to its customer community?**
- Is outreach information made available that is appropriate for the user community?
- Does the archive effectively publicize its services?
- Is the archive a member of the Society of American Archivists, or the Association of Archivists, or the International Council on Archives, or regional archive organizations?
- Do you solicit input from your user community to assess needs and future requirements?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive make its data and services effectively available to its customer community?**
- Are access delivery mechanisms in synch with the expectations of the user community?
- Is cataloging information provided that is sufficient for locating data based on descriptive information?
- Does the archive provide unique identifiers for data sets that support tracking of information?
- Is cataloging information available to the customer community?
- Are mechanisms provided to track usage of the archive?
- Mechanisms for handling confidentiality requirements?
- Do you have mechanisms to handle copyright?
- Support for proprietary data access control?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Are the archive’s data correctly and independently usable by the designated community?**
- Is there enough and adequate representational information provided for the data to be usable?
- Is the meta-data context correctly defined?
- Can the data be used without needing expert advice?
- Are mechanisms provided to collect this information from the data providers?
- Is the level of expertise defined for access to the data sets?
- Are data sets provided that correspond to the level of expertise of the user community?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Does the archive provide an infrastructure independent representation for the data and meta-data?**
- Can the collection be migrated forward in time?
- Do you have an infrastructure independent representation for the database itself?
- Mechanisms for handling proprietary formats?
- Will conversion tools exist?
- Do you provide (archive) original software?
- Do you provide alternate representations or formats?
- Are the formats documented or published?

## Certification (Best Practices) Checklist

**Are mechanisms provided for life cycle maintenance?**
- Is validation of data integrity done on a regular basis?
- Is the OAIS checklist followed on a regular basis?
- Is there a plan for regular migration of data?
- Is copyright permission format evolution tracked?
- Do you have permission to migrate to a new form?
- (Need to extend fair use and rights of preservation to digital materials.)
- Pre-ingest checklist is needed

## Best Practice Development

**Use ingest and identification workgroup criteria for checklist**
- ID meta-data
- Cataloging (finding aids)
- Unique identifier within local collection, within archive community, ...
**Check compliance of the certification/best practices list with the OAIS model and mandatory responsibilities section 3.**

## Best Practice Development

**What is the appropriate data set description?**
- Correspondence to OAIS terminology
- Descriptive information
- Dublin Core
- PDI - Reference, context, provenance, fixity
- Packaging information
- Representation information
- Structure
- Management - audit trails
- Preservation
**What is the information model for the structure of meta-data?**