Applying preservation metadata to repositories
For JISC KeepIt course on Digital Preservation Tools for Repository ManagersModule 3, Primer on preservation workflow, formats and characterisation
Westminster-Kingsway College, London, 2 March 2010
This section by Steve Hitchcock KeepIt project
Based on an earlier workshop presented for the Repositories Support Project (RSP), London, January 2008
Applying preservation metadata to repositories
Overview of session
Why preservation metadata?
Background on PREMIS
Group work: preservation metadata exercise
Teams report back; discussion of findings
Conclusions: Are IRs preservation repositories?
How much preservation Is your repository doing?
Demonstrate that repositories do more preservation-related work than you might think
Show how preservation support is responding to what repositories do
Not a tutorial on PREMIS
Aims of the session
Metadata designed for managing digital content over a long period of time is commonly referred to as preservation metadata, and typically informs, describes and records a range of activities concerned with preserving specific digital objects.
Preservation metadata
Currently, the authoritative reference on preservation metadata
Emphasis: implementation
Produced a Data Dictionary (v2.0 April 2008)http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/
Describes and defines over 100 semantic units, i.e. items of metadata
Applicable to preservation repositories. Are IRs preservation repositories?
PREMIS: Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies
PREMIS dictionary documents four types of entity:
Objects: things the repository stores
Events: things that happen to the objects
Agents: people, or organisations or software that act on objects
Rights: expression of rights applying to objects
PREMIS Data Dictionary: entities
PREMIS Data Dictionary: example entry
This table taken from V1.0 (May 2005)
Repository software
Submitting author
Repository administrators
Repository policy
Preservation tools, e.g. format ID Preservation services
PREMIS data: where might it come from?
You will be given a list of selected entries from the PREMIS Data Dictionary
The aim is to:
identify those entries that can serve your repositories, and
indicate where that information (metadata) is, or could be, generated
Good luck with your team task!
Team task
This was not a test, not a survey, not a tutorial
It was about making preservation real for your repository
We often think of ‘preservation’ in an abstract sense, but repositories are already taking actions that affect preservation and contribute towards preservation results
You are probably doing more preservation than you think
Did we achieve the aims of the session?
It is likely that future revisions of PREMIS will accommodate the emerging Planets model of significant properties.
Recording explicitly how a preservation action creates a new representation from an old one. This involves recording the relationship between:
the representations the preservation action event the agent used to perform the preservation action
and details, such as
configuration parameters significant characteristics which guided the choice of preservation action measured differences between the source and the target (outcome information), etc.
Updating PREMIS