# Presentation: 366729

## OAIS in the Library EnvironmentManaging and Preserving Electronic ResourcesFLICC/CENDIWashington DC, December 11,2001

- Anne Van Camp
- RLG, Member Initiatives
- avc@notes.rlg.org

## Who, Why, and What?

- Who am I?
- Why am I here?
- What are we doing of interest?

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## RLG	

- Non-profit corporation, founded in 1974
- 165 members in 15 countries
- Mission:
- Through collaborative action with our members, increase access and preserve information that supports research and learning

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## RLG Collaboration

- Collaborative initiatives
- Resource sharing, digital initiatives, primary sources management, preservation standards, museum documentation
- Networked Information Services
- Online research resources
- Record and document supply

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Collaboration & Best Practice in Digital Preservation

- Preservation Metadata
- Digital Archive Attributes
- In the context of existing and/or emerging international standards
- Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
**International, widely diverse communities**

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## What Do I Mean by Digital Preservation?

- Two distinct, but equally important functions
- Long-term maintenance of a bytestream (digital objects);
- Continuing access to its contents over time and through changing technology

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## What Does Digital Preservation Do?

- Preservation should allow future users to:
- retrieve, access, decipher, view, interpret, understand, appreciate, and experience
- informational entities (i.e., documents, data, records, audio, video, etc.)
- in whatever ways and for whatever purposes are desired in the future
- while retaining their meaning and validity (i.e., their “authenticity”)
- -Jeff Rothenberg

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Interested Communities

-  National archives
-  National libraries
-  Research repositories
-  Public and private archives
-  University libraries
-  Public and private research repositories
-  Museums

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## What are We Doing Now?

- Digital repository [archive] models
- Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
- Attributes of a digital repository for research resources
- Preservation metadata
- Digital preservation policies

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Necessary Tools and Guidelines

-  Definitional Documents	Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository
-  Architectural Models	OAIS Reference Model
-  Administrative Functions & Policies	Policy Frameworks for Digital Archives
-  Selection Policies
-  Access Systems/Metadata Structures	Information Infrastructure for Digital Archives

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Open Archival Information System Reference Model

- Framework for understanding and applying concepts needed for long-term preservation of digital information
- Development to fit certain information types (digital images, space systems data, etc.) left to those who adopt the model
- Facilitates description and comparison of archives
- Addresses a full range of archival functions
- Broad, international interest

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Examples of OAIS Influence in Libraries

- NEDLIB (Networked European Deposit Library) Project
- CEDARS (CURL Exemplars in Digital Archiving) Project
- British Library
- Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands)
- National Library of Australia
- Harvard University

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Defining Attributes

**Ingest**

**Data**

**Management**

**Access**

**Archival Storage**

**Delivery**

**&**

**Capture**

**Packaging**

**&**

**Delivery**

**Administration**

**Monitoring & Logging**

**Data**

**Data**

**Preservation**

- PRO
- D
- U
- C
- E
- R

- C
- O
- N
- S
- U
- M
- E
- R

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## RLG/OCLC Working Group on Digital Archive Attributes

- Scope:
- Create a definitional document describing the characteristics of reliable, digital archives for heterogeneous research collections
- Identify tools to support institutions in seeking or building archiving services
- Present recommendations to RLG and OCLC suggesting solutions for developing tool sets
- Identify any follow-on activities required

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Draft Report 

*Attributes of Trusted Digital Repositories: Meeting the Needs of Research Resources (August 2001)*
*	**www.rlg.org/longterm/attributes01.pdf*
- High-level, conceptual “discussion”
- Provides a framework for the “deep infrastructure” identified in the 1996 report, Preserving Digital Information

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## What Does the Report Do?

- Provides a definition of a *trusted* digital repository
- Identifies the primary attributes of a *trusted* digital repository
- Articulates a framework for the development of a certification program
- Identifies the responsibilities of an OAIS-compliant repository

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Attributes Framework

- Administrative responsibility
- Organizational viability
- Financial sustainability
- Technological suitability
- System security
- Procedural accountability

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Administrative Responsibility

- Meet appropriate national and/or international standards for the physical environment
- Meet or exceed community standards for performance
- Collect and share data measurements routinely with depositors
- Involve external community experts in validating and/or certifying its processes and procedures on a regular schedule

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Organizational Viability

- Mission statements reflect appropriate commitment
- Demonstrate viability and trustworthiness
- legal status
- transparent business practices
- staff training
- Written agreements with depositors
- Contingency plans and “succession” plans

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Financial Sustainability

- Good business practices and plan
- Regular audit schedule
- Short- and long-term financial planning cycles
- Adequate operating budgets and reserves
- Appropriate fiscal practices and conduct

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Technological Suitability

- Consider all relevant options
- Communicate openly about the suitability of variant strategies
- Have appropriate hardware and software in place
- Policies and plans for replacing technology
- Comply with all relevant standards and best practices
- Ensured staff expertise

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## System Security

- Systems used will be designed to assure the security of the digital assets managed there
- Policies and practices will meet community requirements
- particularly those pertaining to copying processes, authentication systems, firewalls, and backup systems.
- Disaster response
- Data protection

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Procedural Accountability

- Documented practices, available upon request
- Have monitoring mechanisms in place
- For systems
- For procedures
- Preservation strategies (migration, emulation, etc.) undertaken are recorded and justified in context of community best practices
- Feedback mechanisms to support problem resolution

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Other Important Issues

- The importance of trust
- What is trust
- Between what and whom
- How is it validated?
- The need for certification

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Certification

- Key component of a *trusted* digital repository
- Self-assessment will not always be adequate
- especially if institutions choose to use third-party services
- In past, certification practices have been informal and implicit

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## However,

*the attributes to be measured in certification are easier to define than the process and infrastructure of certification*
- So where do we go from here?

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Framework for Certification Program

- Determine the need for an official certifying body
- and who it may be, qualifications, etc.
- Identify the attributes to be measured
- Specify the frequency or cycle of certification
- Define the conditions for revocation of certification

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Applicability & Practicality

- Number of institutions in the process of building and organizing digital repositories
- Other organizations will look for third-party archiving services
- Report articulates roles and responsibilities of long-term repositories
- Provides a framework for measuring reliability and performance
- Outlines a second framework for certification

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Next steps

- Certification effort surging forward
- Tools for OAIS implementers
- Discussion list for practitioners
- Web site of organizations using OAIS
- Follow-on recommendations

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001

## Sources for Further Information

- Research Libraries Group and *RLG DigiNews*
- 	www.rlg.org/longterm/    www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews
- Cedars Project and Camileon Project
- _	_www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/    www.si.umich.edu/CAMILEON/
- National Library of Australiawww.nla.gov.au/preserve/
- Networked European Deposit Library (NEDLIB)
- 	www.kb.nl/coop/nedlib/
- Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) subject gateway
- 	www.nla.gov.au/padi/

- FLICC/CENDI - 11 December 2001