Notes from Discussion Groups: Objective 2.Build an OAIS-Compliant System for Managing Cornell’s Digital Assets.

Group #2872
Facilitator: Jean Pajerek
Note-taker: Rich Enthlich
LMT: Tom Hickerson

Attending: Danielle Mericle, Marcy Rosenkrantz, Michael Fromerth, William Kehoe, Joy Paulson, Eileen Keating, Elaine Westbrooks, Nancy Holcomb, Mary Newhart, Nancy McGovern, Richard Lightbody, David Fielding

The objective

In collaboration with CIT and external partners, establish within three years a fully functioning, administratively supported, and sustainable OAIS-compliant repository system for managing and preserving Cornell University’s digital assets, extending beyond the library to encompass university records of continuing value. This system must meet or exceed certification requirements currently being defined.

  • What is OAIS?
    • Open Archival Information System
    • Originally promulgated by a committee within NASA
    • A reference model for an archival information system
    • an abstraction (i.e. does not provide implementation details)
    • divided into six major functional entity groups
    • incorporates an administrative function covering preservation planning
    • assumes use of prevailing standards, but doesn't prescribe specific ones
  • How is OAIS compliance defined/determined and who certifies it?
    • There is, as yet, no formal certification process
    • OAIS committee at NASA has a group working on certification issues
    • Standards relevant to compliance are still undergoing development
    • The standards don't align perfectly and may use different terminology, etc.
      • some work is needed for all the pieces to fit together and interoperate well
  • How long before the relevant standards will be in place?
    • OAIS was finalized in 2002
    • Work to formalize standards is proceeding quickly, e.g.
      • NISO z39.87 (Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images)
      • PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies)
      • see http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20462#article1 and http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20462#article2 for further information on these
  • Nevertheless, CUL is well-positioned
    • CUL staff are serving on standards committees
    • DPUBS structure already looks a lot like OAIS model
    • EATMOT (Ensuring Access to Mathematics Over Time) has a specific objective to adhere to OAIS principles
  • However, some CUL assets are not well-positioned for incorporation into an OAIS compliant repository
    • Metadata deficiencies are biggest problem
    • Costs for bringing up to standard may be high
    • Whether expense is justified depends on evaluation of that asset's long-term value
      • some collections may not be worth expending the required resources to guarantee their long-term survival

Implementation

  • Ensure collaboration both within the university and beyond
  • Larger concern is probably within university
  • Which assets would go in institutional repository? Where are they?
    • Involve University Archivist re: institutional records
    • Collaborate with CIT and OIT (their asset management systems may not be archival)
  • What about faculty?
    • DCAPS faculty grants program is helping cultivate relationships and raise awareness
      • how do we make requirements clear to all faculty and help them implement?
    • OAIS isn't necessarily meaningful or valuable to faculty
      • depends on appropriateness of content for archival repository storage
      • faculty need to understand that non-compliant resources can't be preserved
      • major educational campaign needed—a psychological and cultural change mechanism
  • There is variation in awareness of sustainability issues on campus
    • Some units already understand
      • Computer Policy and Law Program (Tracy Mitrano)
      • Registrar's Office
    • Overall university records retention policies need review
      • tradition, historical practice, and legal requirements all factor in
      • better campus-wide coordination of practices is needed
      • a records management liaison within each college would be helpful
        • could existing college-level IT people serve this role?
  • Discussions need to continue within CUL
    • going forward, how does one create a sustainable digital collection?
    • better communication is needed between ongoing digital asset creation projects and those with expertise in implementing OAIS standards and requirements
    • retrospectively, what is the status and appropriateness of existing collections for sustainability?
      • is metadata sufficient and in appropriate format?
      • is file format appropriate?
      • metadata requirements can be daunting
        • tools are needed to automate as much of this work as possible
  • Secure institutional commitment to this process that reaches the highest administrative levels of the university.
  • How should this be approached?
    • Could start trying to get high-level buy-in
      • Biddy Martin (Provost)
      • Carolyn Ainslie (VP for Planning and Budget)
      • Harold Craft (VP for Administration)
    • Could build system first and hope to bring administration along
      • we're not used to doing campus-wide lobbying
      • we need to reach out, but even getting 20 libraries aboard will be a challenge and is probably a good place to start
    • The new IT Managers group on campus would be a good forum
      • we should put on a program for this group on long-term digital asset stewardship issues
  • Work with other partners to build this system and to ensure compatibility with OAIS-compliant repositories that other institutions are creating or committed to creating (e.g., Harvard, CDL, Michigan, Texas, Library of Congress, as well as those in other countries such as the Koninklijke Bibliotheek)
  • CUL is well-connected to the OAIS movement
  • EATMOT project is collaborating with Göttingen State and University Library in Germany
  • There are other connections, but they were not discussed during the session
  • Recommended three-year plan:
  • Year 1: Education, draft policy dissemination, stakeholder selection and buy-in, requirements development, request for information, partnership selection, gap analysis, cost analyses. The gap analysis will focus on five digital assets: digital image collections, Euclid journals, ArXiv pre-prints, USDA materials, and university content (material in D-Space, University Press, e-journals, university records, Web content management system).
  • What to do if your project isn't one of the five targeted for gap analysis? How do you comply?
    • Draft CUL Digital Preservation Policy Framework is now available (at http://www.library.cornell.edu/commondepository/cul-dp-framework.pdf)
      • articulates CUL's commitment and defines how it's to be manifested
      • serves as umbrella and general statement for project activities
      • does not provide specifics
    • EATMOT project is developing project management techniques that may be appropriate for other repository initiatives and that may help inform development work in general
  • Develop a self-assessment tool so CUL projects can do pre-compliance determination
  • Increase institutional CUL staff commitment to repository development and outreach
  • Individual CUL digital collection projects must meet their goals and commitments, but
    • use resources in each project to contribute toward overall goal of OAIS-compliant repository
    • conduct an operational inventory to determine what aspects of each project can contribute toward the overall goal
    • provide everyone working on digital collection development a sense of stakeholder status in repository development
  • To increase overall awareness and information flow
    • establish a listserv for CUL digital preservation discussion and information dissemination
    • establish a web site to document progress, reference standards and best practices, promulgate recommended policies and procedures
  • Year 2: Develop partnership agreements, develop implementation and business plans, begin development phase.
  • Year 3: Continue and complete development.
  • Year 4 and on: Populate and maintain digital archive.

Potential Partners

  • CIT.
  • Institutions creating or committed to creating OAIS-compliant repositories.
  • Publishers
  • CU IT Managers Group
  • CU Computer Policy and Law Program
  • IT companies.
  • National Library of New Zealand is partnering with Endeavor and Sun Microsystems to create a preservation program and service for New Zealand
    • Tom Hickerson will be attending meeting with them in December '04
    • we have relationships with both companies
    • part of process will be creation of RFP to see whether IT firms can provide needed functionality
    • success here could result in development of modules useful to a broad spectrum of institutions
      • we shouldn't expect ourselves to develop all the needed components
  • MIT had big investment from HP research for DSpace development, a possible model for other development projects
  • Help from industry will be needed, e.g. in development of repository storage technologies
  • Contact with industry groups such as DAMA International (Data Management Association) may be fruitful, to nudge them towards giving higher priority to archival aspects of data management

Measures of Success

  • Tasks accomplished each year.
  • Becoming a certified OAIS repository system.
  • We still don't know exactly what this will entail
  • We are part of the process, along with others working on OAIS compliant development, defining what certification will mean
  • As long as we stay engaged, we won't be left behind
  • Good interim goal—achieve some functionality in each of the OAIS functional entity groups
  • Interaction with other OAIS-compliant repositories.
  • Develop CUL's Digital Preservation Policy Framework into a fully-realized policy

 

 

 

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