Digital disaster: are you prepared?, University College London, 23 June 2000 Michael Day, UKOLN ...

Digital disaster: are you prepared?, University College London, 23 June

2000

Michael Day, UKOLN

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

Overview

UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC’s Electronic Libraries Programme and the

European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

Digital disaster: are you prepared? - UCL, 23 June 2000.2

Aims of this talk

• think about the ways in which software interfaces to a metadata registry

• consider simple ‘metadata editor’ tool• consider high-level architecture of the tool• list the kinds of requests tools will need to

make of metadata registries• requirements rather than specifications• some general conclusions about

registries


Presentation Outline

• Introduction– Digital preservation

• The Cedars project– Contexts– Aims and objectives– Relationship with the OAIS model– The Cedars outline metadata specification

• Related initiatives


Digital preservation (1)

• Definition:– “... The planning, resource allocation, and

application of preservation methods and technologies necessary to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable” - Margaret Hedstrom (University of Michigan)

• Not:– The creation of digital surrogates of rare or

fragile materials as part of a preservation strategy



• Technical problems:• Media longevity

– Magnetic and optical storage media deteriorate (and can be re-used)

• Software dependence– Information is often stored in formats that

are dependent upon particular software

• Hardware obsolescence– Machines (computers, disk drives, etc.)

rapidly become obsolete and non-repairable



• Other problems:• Intellectual property rights

– Does an organisation have the legal right to preserve an object? If not, how should this be negotiated?

• Authenticity– Is a digital object what it claims to be?

(intellectual preservation)

• Developing preservation policies– RLG Needs and Requirements

• Collection management



• Preservation strategies (none perfect):• Creating hard copy• Technology preservation

– Museums of obsolete hardware

• Migration– The periodic transfer of digital materials from

one generation of technology to a subsequent one

• Emulation – Programs that mimic the behaviour of the

original technical environment


Cedars - CURL exemplars in digital archives


General context (1)

• Task Force on the Archiving of Digital Information (1996)

– Commission on Preservation and Access– Research Libraries Group

• UK responses: – co-ordinated by the Joint Information

Systems Committee, the British Library and the National Preservation Office

– Warwick strategy workshops (1995, 1999)– Digital Archiving Working Group– Digital Preservation Focus (2000)


General context (2)

• Electronic records:• Public Record Office

– Electronic Records in Office Systems (EROS)

– National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD)

• IMOSA• Pittsburgh Project• UBC Project• DLM-Forum


Cedars project (1)

• Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL)

– interested in the roles and responsibilities of research libraries with regard to digital preservation.

• JISC eLib Phase 3– “Hybrid Libraries, Large Scale Resource

Discovery and Digital Preservation”

• Cedars project– funded by JISC through the CURL libraries

from April 1998 for 3 years


Cedars project (2)

• A CURL project led by the universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Oxford

– Mixture of libraries and computing services– Three broad groups:

– Data preservation strategies (Leeds)– Content issues (Cambridge)– Access issues - metadata (Oxford + UKOLN)

• In collaboration with:– Arts and Humanities Data Service, British

Library, National Preservation Office, Research Libraries Group, publishers, etc.


Cedars project (3)

• Objectives:• To promote awareness• To identify and disseminate

– appropriate strategies for collection management

– appropriate strategies for long-term preservation

• Based on a realistic sampling of current digital resource collections


Cedars metadata review (1)

• Metadata for preservation (AIW01)• Produced by UKOLN (August 1998)• Reviewed relevant metadata initiatives:

– PANDORA Project (National Library of Australia)

– RLG Working Group

– Pittsburgh Project / UBC Project

– OAIS Reference Model

– MPEG-7, SMPTE-EBU Task Force– Digital Rosetta Stone, UPF, etc.

• http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cedars/AIW01.html


Cedars metadata review (2)

• Four main types of metadata:– Technical metadata

– Recording technical details about the original hardware and software environment to support preservation strategies

– Rights management metadata– Recording intellectual property rights

ownership, deposit agreements, etc.

– Intellectual preservation metadata– Preserving integrity and authenticity

– Resource discovery metadata


The OAIS model (1)

• ISO Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS):

– Consultative Committee on Space Data Systems (CCSDS)

– Draft Recommendation (May 1999)– Establishes a common framework of terms and

concepts which comprise an OAIS– Facilitates the description and comparison of

archives– A basis for further standardisation– A basis for conformance


The OAIS model (2)

Administration

Ingest

ArchivalStorage

Access

DataManagement

Descriptive info.

AIP

PRODUCER

CONSUMER

AIP

SIP

DIP

MANAGEMENT

requests

other info.

Descriptive info.


Information Packages

• Archival Information Package (AIP):– Content Information

– The information that is the primary object of preservation. Containing a Digital Object and any Representation Information (technical metadata) needed to transform this object into meaningful information

– Preservation Description Information (PDI)– other information (metadata) “which will allow

the understanding of the Content Information over an indefinite period of time”

– Terms defined in CPA/RLG report


Preservation DescriptionInformation

PreservationDescriptionInformation

Reference Information

ProvenanceInformation

ContextInformation

FixityInformation


Cedars and OAIS

• The Cedars project ...– has adopted the OAIS taxonomy as a

means of thinking about metadata and for the preliminary structure of the draft outline specification of preservation metadata

– the data preservation strategies group has developed a model based on OAIS and outlined a “blueprint for Representation Information”.

• http://gps0.leeds.ac.uk/~ecldh/cedars/• nasa2000/nasa2000.html


Cedars metadata (1)

• Process:– List of elements identified from selected

initiatives described in metadata review– Initial version, structured according to the

OAIS taxonomy (February 1999)– First review draft of outline specification

(December 1999)– Public consultation draft (March 2000)– Walk-through meeting (Birmingham, April

2000)– “Final” version (June 2000)


Cedars metadata (2)

• Each element definition includes:• Name• Identifier• Definition• Obligation• Sub-elements• Comment

– (A subset of ISO/IEC 11179)


Preservation description (1)

• Reference Information• Resource Description

– Dublin Core

• Existing metadata• Context Information

• Related Information Objects– Other information objects judged to be

related to the digital object, e.g. documentation



• Provenance Information• History of Origin

– Records information about the digital object prior to ingest, includes the reason for its creation (where known), its custody history, information about its original technical environment, etc.

• Management History– Records decisions made about (and

changes made to) the digital object after ingest



• Provenance Information (cont.)• Rights Management

– Records information about intellectual property rights embodied in the digital object, both to help manage access and the preservation process itself

• Fixity Information• Authentication Indicator


Representation information

• Structure Information– Mechanisms for transforming the byte-stream

of a digital object into a structured set of digital components

• Underlying Abstract Form Description• Transformer Objects• Render/Analyse/Convert Objects

• Semantic Information– Mechanisms that allow the specific object in an

AIP to be rendered

• Render/Analyse Objects


Related projects

• NEDLIB– Networked European Deposit Library

• National Library of Australia• British Library• RLG & OCLC• National Archives of Australia• SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata• CAMiLEON

– Creative Archiving at Michigan and Leeds: Emulating the Old on the New


Conclusions

• Deliverable version of Cedars metadata specification (June 2000) - will include some examples

• Implementation as XML DTD as part of project demonstrators

• Generated much interest:– Contact with NEDLIB project partners and NLA

working group– British Library Digital Services Project– OAIS

• Still a “work in progress”


Web pages

• Cedars Web pages:• http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/

• UKOLN Metadata Web pages:• http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/

• The OAIS Model:• http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/ref_model.html

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