DIGITAL CURATION creating managing and preserving digital objects

DIGITAL CURATION creating, managing and preserving digital objects Dr D Peters DISA Digital Innovation South Africa Institutional Repositories 17 -19 July 2007

Topics l What is digital curation? l Curating digital objects l Digital repository functions l Role of metadata in digital preservation

Information density vs. life expectancy Paul Conway, School for Scanning, Chicago, 1999

Future scenario l Where will our descendents find today’s information - in 50 years time? l In what media will it be presented? l What must happen in the space/ time between creation and presentation?

Chain of preservation l Authenticity v Committing to storage v Maintaining in storage v Retrieval v Presentation l Transmission v Over time and across technologies v Technological approaches v Archival practice

What is digital curation?

Digital Curation: lifecycle

Paradigm shift l Preserve an electronic record? l Software translation l Beyond safe storage l Future representation of components

What is a Digital Information Object ? METADATA Representation Information

Strategies for digital preservation l Research agenda v Archival systems v Methods and tools v Policy and legal framework l Education and training v Advocacy workshops v Develop suitable educational qualifications v Operational training in digital curation l Centre of excellence v Third party service provider: commercial / consortial v Lead a shared community of practice v Trusted digital repository

What is a digital repository?

Digital Repository l Business model for sustainability l Agreements with participants l Appropriate technological infrastructure l Production-level archiving system l Define trusted archiving service model

Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository “…an organisation that has responsibility for the long-term maintenance of digital resources, as well as making them available [through time and across changing technologies] to communities agreed on by the depositor and the repository. ” Research Libraries Group http: //www. rlg. org/longterm/attributes 01. pdf

Trusted Digital Repository l Administrative responsibility l Organisational viability l Financial sustainability l Technological suitability l System security l Procedural accountability

OAIS Information Model SIP = Submission Information Package AIP = Archive In formation Package DIP = Dissemination Information Package

Functions of Ingest

UStellenbosch Access Model Level Metadata Authors Names Projects Theses Publications Datasets L 0 L 1 L 2 L 3 L 4 No Access To be confirmed View by owner

The role of metadata in digital preservation?

Metadata and Digital Preservation l Metadata is the glue of any digital preservation strategy: v Within a digital repository, “metadata accompanies and makes reference to each digital object and provides associated descriptive, structural, administrative, rights management, and other kinds of information. ” Clifford Lynch (D-Lib Magazine, 1999)

Preservation Metadata l Viability v bit stream is intact and readable from digital storage media l Renderability v translation of the bit stream into a form that can be viewed by humans, or processed by computers l Understandability v providing enough information that the rendered content can be interpreted and understood by users PREMIS Metadata Framework to support the preservation of digital objects http: //www. oclc. org/research/projects/pmwg/pm_framework. pdf

Creating the Wrapper l Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS) v Digital Library Federation-sponsored initiative v XML document format for encoding metadata necessary for § management of digital library objects within a repository § exchange of such objects between repositories (or between repositories and their users).

METS & Digital Preservation l As a vehicle to express/contain various types of metadata v Descriptive, administrative, structural, rights, technical l As a vehicle/wrapper for information and digital repository management v OAIS (SIP, AIP, DIP)

Like Nesting Dolls Structural Data Administrative Descriptive Rights MARC Dublin Core Technical Represent (NISO, Vi. DE, ation etc. ) Info Open. URL OAI ONIX General Frameworks Archive Packaging Cedars METS OCLC/RLG AIP

Content Management Systems l General Requirements v Handle repository functions v Representation v Structural organisation v Aggregation v Networked distribution My. SQL l Preservation Requirements v Defined preservation strategy v Metadata support v Integrity checks Fedora D-Space

Review l What is digital curation? l Preserving digital objects l Digital repository functions l Role of metadata in digital preservation l Legal rights management

Sneak Preview… l Normalising to open formats - open standards. l XML schema for preservation - metadata and where to put it. l Identifying data format types programmatically. l Normaliser and file namer plugin architecture…well, maybe. l Integration with 3 rd party software applications (e. g. DSpace, Fedora, Eprints)

More information… DISA: Digital Imaging South Africa http: //disa. nu. ac. za PADI Preservation Metadata Bibliography: http: //www. nla. gov. au/padi/topics/32. html l PREMIS: http: //www. oclc. org/research/projects/pmwg/ l JHOVE: http: //hul. harvard. edu/jhove. html l PRONOM: http: //www. nationalarchives. gov. uk/pronom/ l OAIS: http: //ssdoo. gsfc. nasa. gov/nost/wwwclassic/documents/ pdf/CCSDS-650. 0 -B-1. pdf l METS: http: //www. loc. gov/standards/mets/ l petersd@ukzn. ac. za

Attribution-Non. Commercial-Share. Alike 2. 0 South Africa You are free: • to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work • to make derivative works Under the following conditions: Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. • For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. • Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.