Preservation metadata and
the Cedars project
Michael Day
UKOLN: UK Office for Library and
Information Networking
University of Bath
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
[email protected]
Metadata for Long-Term Preservation in NEDLIB
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 25 February 2000
Presentation Outline
• The UK context
• The Cedars project
– Aims and objectives
– Relationship with the OAIS model
– The Cedars outline metadata specification
• A JISC/NSF funded project about
emulation strategies (CAMiLEON)
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
The UK Context
CPA/RLG Task Force on the Archiving of
Digital Information (1996)
– UK response 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
Public Record Office
– Electronic Records in Office Systems (EROS)
– National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD)
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Cedars - CURL exemplars in
digital archives
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
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
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
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)
In collaboration with:
– Arts and Humanities Data Service, British
Library, National Preservation Office, Research
Libraries Group, UKOLN, publishers, etc.
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
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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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Cedars metadata review (1)
Metadata for preservation (AIW01)
– Produced by UKOLN (August 1998)
– Identified and reviewed relevant projects and
associated issues
–
–
–
–
The OAIS Model
PANDORA
The Pittsburgh Project
RLG Working Group
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cedars/AIW01.html
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
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
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
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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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
The OAIS model (2)
Descriptive
info.
Data
Management
Descriptive
info.
requests
P
R
O
D
U
C
E
R
Ingest
Access
SIP
other info.
AIP
Archival
Storage
DIP
AIP
Administration
MANAGEMENT
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
C
O
N
S
U
M
E
R
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
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Preservation Description
Information
Preservation
Description
Information
Reference
Information
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Provenance
Information
Context
Information
NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Fixity
Information
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
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Cedars metadata (1)
Process:
• Elements identified from selected
initiatives described in metadata
review
• Initial draft, structured according to
OAIS taxonomy (February 1999)
• Extended debate about the role of
OAIS
• First review draft (December 1999)
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Cedars metadata (2)
Reference Information
• Resource Description
– Title, Creator, etc.
• Reference labels
• Existing metadata
Context Information
• Reason for Preservation
• Related Information Objects
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Cedars metadata (3)
Provenance Information
• History of Origin
• Management History
• Use History
• Known Operating Environments
• Rights Management
Fixity Information
• Checksum
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Cedars metadata (4)
Future developments:
• Initial draft specification
– Most comments have now been received
– Generally favourable response
– Some serious issues that need to be
addressed
• Revised draft specification
– For public consultation (from April)
• Final project deliverable
– Due June 2000
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
CAMiLEON project
Emulation Options for Digital Preservation
• JISC/NSF International Digital
Libraries Programme
– University of Michigan
– University of Leeds (Cedars)
• Testing emulation strategies for digital
preservation
• Now called: CAMiLEON
– Creative Archiving at Michigan and Leeds:
Emulating the Old on the New
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Conclusions
For the project:
– How successful has Cedars been when
compared with its aims and objectives?
– e.g., the production of best practice guidelines
for metadata
– What will Cedars be able to demonstrate?
– Will this lead to the development of digital
preservation services?
For OAIS:
– Terminology not widely understood
– Need to know more about how it interacts
with other models
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
Web pages
Cedars Web pages:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/
UKOLN Metadata Web pages:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/
OAIS Model:
http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/
ref_model.html
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000
UKOLN
UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information
Commission (formerly the British Library Research
and Innovation Centre), the Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK Higher
Education Funding Councils, as well as by project
funding from the JISC’s Electronic Libraries (eLib)
Programme and the European Union. UKOLN also
receives support from the University of Bath, where
it is based.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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NEDLIB Workshop, Paris, 25 February 2000