Standards Showcase: PREMIS (Preservation metadata)

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Standards ShowcasePREMIS (Preservation metadata)

• Rebecca Guenther, Library of Congress
• ALA Annual 2006
• LC booth presentation
• June 24-25, 2006

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Overview

• What is preservation metadata?
• Background
• PREMIS work
• Survey
• Data dictionary
• Features of the data dictionary
• Implementing PREMIS
• Future

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Digital preservation advances remaining
challenges

• Groups around the world and conferences continue
  to make significant progress in raising awareness
  about digital preservation imperative
• Gradual shift in focus from articulating problem
  to solving it
• Not so much Why is digital preservation
  important anymore rather, What must be done to
  achieve preservation objectives?
• Many practical challenges in implementing
  reliable, sustainable digital preservation
  programs
• One key implementation challenge preservation
  metadata

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Preservation metadata includes
Preservation Metadata
Content

• Provenance
• Who has had custody/ownership of the digital
  object?
• Authenticity
• Is the digital object what it purports to be?
• Preservation Activity
• What has been done to preserve the digital
  object?
• Technical Environment
• What is needed to render and use the digital
  object?
• Rights Management
• What IPR must be observed?
• Makes digital objects self-documenting across time

10 years on
50 years on
Forever!
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PREMIS background

• Pre-2002 various preservation metadata element
  sets released
• Different scopes, purposes, underlying
  models/assumptions
• No international standard little consolidation
  of expertise/best practice
• June 2002 Preservation Metadata Framework
• International working group (jointly sponsored by
  OCLC, RLG)
• Comprehensive, high-level description of types of
  information constituting preservation metadata
• Used OAIS reference model as starting point
• Set of prototype preservation metadata elements
• Consensus-based foundation for developing formal
  preservation metadata specifications but not an
  off-the-shelf, ready to implement solution
• Post-2002 Needed implementable preservation
  metadata, with guidelines for application and
  use, relevant to a wide range of digital
  preservation systems and contexts
• Motivated formation of PREMIS Working Group

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PREMIS Working Group

• Preservation metadata key component of
  sustainable digital preservation
• June 2003 OCLC, RLG sponsored international
  working group
• PREMIS Preservation Metadata Implementation
  Strategies
• Objective
• Define implementable, core preservation metadata,
  with guidelines/recommendations for management
  and use
• Membership
• gt 30 experts from 5 countries, libraries,
  museums, archives, government agencies, private
  sector
• Co-Chairs Priscilla Caplan (FCLA), Rebecca
  Guenther (LC)

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Membership

• Priscilla Caplan, FCLA (Chair)
• Rebecca Guenther, LC (Chair)
• Michael Alexander, British Library
• George Barnum, GPO
• Charles Blair, U. of Chicago
• Olaf Brandt, U. of Göttingen
• Adam Farquhar, British Library
• David Gewirtz, Yale
• Kevin Glavash, MIT/Dspace
• Cathy Hartman, U. of N. Texas
• Helen Hodgart, British Library
• Nancy Hoebelheinrich, Stanford
• Roger Howard/Sally Hubbard, Getty Museum
• Pam Kircher, OCLC
• John Kunze, Calif. Digital Library

• Brian Lavoie, OCLC liaison
• Robin Dale, RLG liaison
• Vicky McCarger, LA Times
• Jerry McDonough, NYU/METS
• Evan Owens, JSTOR
• Erin Rhodes, NARA
• Madi Solomon, Walt Disney Co.
• Angela Spinazze, ATSPIN
• Gunter Waibel, RLG
• Lisa Weber, NARA
• Robin Wendler, Harvard
• Hilde van Wijngaarden, KB
• Andrew Wilson, NAA

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Advisory Committee

• Howard Besser, UCLA
• Liz Bishoff, OCLC (via Colorado Digitization
  Program)
• Gerard Clifton, National Library of Australia
• Gail Hodge, CENDI
• Steve Knight, National Library of New Zealand

• Maggie Jones, Digital Preservation Coalition
• Nancy McGovern, Cornell
• Cliff Morgan, Wiley UK
• Richard Rinehart, U. of California, Berkeley

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Survey Report

• September 2004 Implementing Preservation
• Repositories for Digital Materials Current
  Practice and
• Emerging Trends in the Cultural Heritage
  Community
• Survey of existing and planned digital
  repositories
• Mission, content, funding, preservation
  policies/strategies,
• take up of OAIS, access mechanisms, and more
• Use of metadata to support repository processes,
  functions, policies types of metadata collected
  metadata storage/management practices
• 50 responses
• 28 libraries, 7 archives, 3 museums, and 11 other
  
• 13 different countries 45 from U.S.
• 38 in planning 33 development 46 production
• Snapshot of current practices and emerging trends
  related to managing preservation metadata in
  digital archiving systems
• Variety of preservation contexts, institution
  types, and domains

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Survey findings

• Little experience with digital preservation
• Most didnt have active preservation strategy
• Many not yet in production
• Cannot assess adequacy of metadata
• Lack of common vocabulary and conceptual
  framework
• Informed by OAIS reference model
• Difference of opinion as to meaning of OAIS
  compliance
• Metadata
• Many recording rights, provenance, technical,
  administrative, descriptive and structural
• Most repositories serve goals of both
  preservation and access

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PREMIS Data Dictionary

• May 2005 Data Dictionary for Preservation
• Metadata Final Report of the PREMIS Working
  Group
• 237-page report includes
• PREMIS Data Dictionary 1.0
• Accompanying report (context, data model,
  assumptions)
• Special topics, glossary, usage examples
• Set of XML schema to support implementation
• Data Dictionary comprehensive, practical
  resource for implementing preservation metadata
  in digital archiving systems
• Comprehensive view of information requirements
  needed to support digital preservation
• Based on deep pool of institutional experiences
  in setting up and managing operational capacity
  for digital preservation
• Builds on previous work

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From theory to practice
Preservation Metadata Requirements
Digital Archiving Systems
Framework
OAIS
PREMIS Data Dictionary
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Winner 2005 Digital Preservation Award
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Some guiding principles and assumptions

• Implementable, core, preservation metadata
• Preservation metadata maintain viability,
  renderability, understandability, authenticity,
  identity in a preservation context
• Core What most preservation repositories need
  to know to preserve digital materials over the
  long-term
• Implementable rigorously defined supported by
  usage guidelines/recommendations emphasis on
  automated workflows
• Implementation neutral
• No assumptions on specific implementation
• Promote flexibility/interoperability
• Focus on semantic units what you need to know
  (implementation-neutral) vs. metadata elements
  how you record it (implementation-specific)
• Information that needs to be recoverable from
  the digital archiving system, independent of
  local implementation

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Scope of data dictionary

• Implementation independent
• Descriptive metadata out of scope
• Technical metadata applying to all or most format
  types
• Media or hardware details are limited
• Business rules are essential for working
  repositories, but not covered
• Rights information for preservation actions, not
  access

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PREMIS data model
Intellectual Entities
Rights
Agents
Objects
Events
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Sample Data Dictionary entry
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Semantic units pertaining to objects

• objectIdentifier
• preservationLevel
• objectCategory
• objectCharacteristics
• creatingApplication
• originalName
• Storage
• environment

• signatureInformation
• relationship
• linkingEventIdentifier
• linkingIntellectual Entity Identifier
• linkingPermission StatementIdentifier

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Semantic units pertaining to Events

• eventIdentifier
• eventType
• eventDateTime
• eventDetail
• eventOutcome
• eventOutcomeDetail
• linkingAgentIdentifier
• linkingObjectIdentifier

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Semantic units pertaining to Agents

• agentIdentifier
• agentName
• agentType

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Semantic units pertaining to Rights

• permissionStatement
• permissionStatementIdentifier
• relatedObject
• grantingAgent
• grantingAgreement
• permissionGranted
• act
• restriction
• termOfGrant
• permissionNote

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Community interest

• As of March 2006
• 25,000 hits on Data Dictionary
• More than 100 subscribers to the PREMIS
  Implementers Group discussion list
• PREMIS Data Dictionary product of collaboration
  and consensus
• PREMIS membership reflects variety of
  institutions, domains, countries
• Multiplicity of perspectives promotes
  applicability in multiplicity of contexts
• Digital preservation is a shared problem this
  invites shared solutions
• Data Dictionary useful to any institution or
  organization committed to the long-term
  preservation of digital materials

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PREMIS Maintenance Activity
Permanent Web presence, hosted by Library of
Congress Centralized destination
for information, announcements, and other
PREMIS-related resources Discussion list for
PREMIS implementers (PIG list) Coordinate future
revisions of Data Dictionary and XML
schema Editorial committee being established to
guide development and revisions
http//www.loc.gov/standards/premis/
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Current activities

• Documenting errata and proposed revisions to Data
  Dictionary (feedback through PIG list)
• http//www.loc.gov/standards/premis/changes.html
• PREMIS Implementers Registry
• http//www.loc.gov/standards/premis/premis-registr
  y.html
• Consultancies, etc.
• Rights issues for digital preservation (Karen
  Coyle)
• PREMIS implementation guidelines and
  recommendations (Deborah Woodyard-Robinson)
• PREMIS-to-OAIS mapping (Brian Lavoie)
• PREMIS on the road
• Digital Curation Center PREMIS workshop (July
  17-18 Glasgow)
• Repository workshop at National Library of
  Australia (Aug. 31)
• Investigating workshops in US

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Going forward

• Establish Editorial committee
• First revision of Data Dictionary
• Work with other initiatives (e.g., METS, Z39.87)
  to integrate PREMIS with existing standards,
  technologies, best practices (e.g. METS)
• Contribute preservation metadata resources to
  digital preservation community that are
• Openly available
• Oriented toward practical implementation
• Supported by a long-term commitment
• Tools

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Some implementers

• MathArc (Germany) A joint project funded by NSF
  (Cornell) and SUB Göttingen (DFG) to build a
  distributed archive for mathematical journals
  distributed between two archives to keep
  information redundant.
• DAITTSS (Florida) a preservation repository for
  the use of the libraries of the public
  universities of Florida. Uses a locally-developed
  software application (DAITSS), which implements
  most of the PREMIS data elements.
• Ex Libris (DigiTool) an enterprise solution for
  the management of digital assets in libraries and
  academic environments consisting of a number of
  modules, each designed to address different
  needs, functions, and workflows pertaining to the
  life cycle of a digital object
• For more information see
• http//www.loc.gov/premis/premis-registry.html

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Conclusion

• PREMIS Data Dictionary provides critical piece of
  reliable digital preservation infrastructure
  comprised of technology, standards, and best
  practice
• PREMIS Data Dictionary is a building block with
  which effective, sustainable digital preservation
  strategies can be implemented
• PREMIS Data Dictionary tightly focused on
  implementation
• Practical implementation was guiding principle in
  all discussions
• Developed tools to support implementation
  released with Data Dictionary
• Further work with encouragement for international
  participation and tools development is ongoing
• Unglamorous but necessary infrastructure!

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URLs, etc.

• PREMIS Maintenance Activity
• http//www.loc.gov/standards/premis/
• PREMIS Working Group
• http//www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/
• Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata Final
  Report of the PREMIS Working Group
• http//www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis
  -final.pdf
• Please send project information to Implementers
  Registry and join the PIG list!