Digital disaster: are you prepared, University College London, 23 June 2000

1
Overview

• Digital disaster are you prepared?, University
  College London, 23 June 2000
• Michael Day, UKOLN
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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 JISCs Electronic Libraries
Programme and the European Union. UKOLN also
receives support from the University of Bath
where it is based.
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

3
Presentation Outline

• Introduction
• Digital preservation
• The Cedars project
• Contexts
• Aims and objectives
• Relationship with the OAIS model
• The Cedars outline metadata specification
• Related initiatives

4
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

5
Digital preservation (2)

• 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

6
Digital preservation (3)

• 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

7
Digital preservation (4)

• 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

8
Cedars - CURL exemplars in digital archives
9
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)

10
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

11
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

12
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.

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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

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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

15
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

16
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

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The OAIS model (2)
Data Management
Descriptive info.
Descriptive info.
Access
requests
Ingest
CONSUMER
PRODUCER
other info.
SIP
Archival Storage
AIP
DIP
AIP
Administration
MANAGEMENT
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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

19
Preservation DescriptionInformation
Preservation Description Information
Reference Information
Provenance Information
Context Information
Fixity Information
20
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

21
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)

22
Cedars metadata (2)

• Each element definition includes
• Name
• Identifier
• Definition
• Obligation
• Sub-elements
• Comment
• (A subset of ISO/IEC 11179)

23
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

24
Preservation description (2)

• 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

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Preservation description (3)

• 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

26
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

27
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

28
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

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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.ht
  ml