Essential tools for digital records preservation

Over the last ten years the Australian archives and records community has moved from theory to implementation in the preservation of digital records.

The experience of operational digital archives has shown that there are certain tools that we know we must use to successfully preserve and manage digital records.

Recordkeeping metadata & preservation metadata

"Recordkeeping metadata is data that describes the context, content and structure of records and their management through time."[1]

Recordkeeping metadata is vital for the management and useability of digital records throughout their existence, including as archives. Recordkeeping metadata is generated from the moment a record is created or received, and is added or produced each time a record is saved into a recordkeeping system, used, transferred or accessed. It includes a combination of automatically generated, user defined and inherited information.

Recordkeeping metadata is also crucial in supporting the authenticity of digital records as they move through different environments and even change format. The InterPARES project's Preservation Task Force Report, Appendix 6: 'How to preserve authentic electronic records'[2] indicates that a record preserver (for example an archival authority) must gather information (metadata) on the context of a record's creation, the manner in which it has been handled and the essential characteristics that give the record meaning if it is to successfully preserve an authentic copy of the record.

Recordkeeping metadata can also be used to ensure that all necessary information about a record's 'content and essential characteristics' is retained and referenced to ensure the preservation process does not compromise these features.

Preservation metadata is information that supports and documents the digital preservation process. For example, it is metadata documenting custody/ownership, preservation processes, technical dependencies and rights management.

However recordkeeping metadata and preservation metadata are interchangeable, meaning that the same metadata can be used for recordkeeping and preservation purposes. Hence there is no need for separate metadata to be maintained for both purposes.There is no need for separate metadata to be made and kept with digital records for recordkeeping and preservation purposes; the same information can serve as both purposes.

Metadata should be standardised; this assists both the organisations creating and receiving the records with the records' management and ensures that an archive that received the records has adequate metadata for their management and use over time. Some examples of metadata standards are:

• NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard (NRKMS) (preferred for NSW Government Recordkeeping use)
• PREMIS: PREservation Metadata Implementation Strategies

Model for sustainable repositories

The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model[3] is a proven and widely adopted framework for sustainable digital repositories used by digital archives in Australia and around the world.

OAIS Functional entities

The OAIS model provides a common conceptual framework for describing the environment, functional components and information objects within a system that is responsible for the long term preservation of digital materials. It has been adopted by a number of communities that are concerned with the long term preservation of digital information, including libraries, universities and archives.

Some of the principles underpinning effective preservation of digital materials that the OAIS model conveys are:

• the importance of non technical aspects of a digital repository such as organisational infrastructure and staffing, sustainable resourcing and procedural accountability
• the need for an ongoing program of preservation planning, including routine monitoring of the technological change occurring in the repository's environment, and
• the importance of metadata to record all preservation, management and use processes that take place.

The OAIS model can be implemented in conjunction with different preservation techniques (eg encapsulation, normalisation). Examples of digital repositories in Australia that follow the OAIS model include the National Archives of Australia's and the Public Records Office Victoria's digital archive repositories.

Footnotes

[1] AS ISO 15489 Part 1 General Clause 3.12

[2] InterPARES Project, Preservation Task Force Report, 2006 http://www.interpares.org/book/interpares_book_f_part3.pdf

[3] Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS), January 2002