Collections
Infrastructure
OAIS model
The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model (ISO 14721) is an international standard that addresses the issue of long-term preservation of information and which has been widely accepted by the digital preservation community as a key standard for digital repositories. It specifies a system for archiving information both digitalized and physical, with an organizational scheme composed of people who accept the responsibility to preserve information and make it available to a designated community. It addresses a number of preservation functions including, ingest, archival storage, data management, access and dissemination. Is also addresses the migration of digital information to new media and forms, the data models used to represent the information, the role of the software in information preservation, and the exchange of digital information among archives.
Copyright © Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), 2002
The OAIS consists of 6 functional entities and their related activities are noted below:
1. Ingest
2. Archival Storage
3. Data Management
4. Administration
5. Preservation Planning
6. Access
Documents:
Digital Asset Management System [DAMS]
The Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) enables material to be ingested into the Library’s digital archive, managed throughout its lifecycle and accessed by the public. In 2007 the Library acquired the VTLS Information Management System, which includes the VTLS Vital, a package designed to support the development of a ‘digital object repository’, or a DAMS. VTLS Vital is a proprietary system that is based on Fedora an open source system.
Digital Archive
The digital archive is the computer hardware and software that stores digital data for the long term, and it is this store that will be used for digital preservation. The digital archive has been developed since 2003 and at present it stores digital image files created by the Library’s digitization programme, audio recordings [Offair BOB] and will be further developed to store many other categories of digital materials. The data archive makes use of Quantum Amass technology to store large amounts of data in an easily retrievable and automatically upgradeable form. In 2009 the archive has a capacity of 200 terabytes and can be expanded further.
- Copyright © Nancy YMcGovern and Anne R Kenney, 2003
'A trusted digital repository is one whose mission is to provide reliable, long-term access to managed digital resources to its designated community, now and in the future' [OCLC, 2002]. A TDR must have the 7 following attributes:
1. OAIS compliance
2. Administrative responsibility
3. Organizational viability
4. Financial sustainability
5. Technological and procedural suitability
6. System security
7. Procedural accountability
As noted in the Corporate Plan the Library is 'exploring the possibility of becoming a Trusted Digital Repository' and 'practices and procedures will be developed in order to meet the commonly expected requirements of a trusted digital repository' [Digital Preservation Policy and Strategy, 2008].
