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Metadata

Limit to: Preservation metadata

Metadata is structured information that describes resources. While the resources are interesting to the end user, the metadata is helpful to the people or programs that have to manage the information. Catalogue records for library materials are a common example of metadata. Usually the metadata describes the content, physical description, location, type and form of the information, and information necessary for management including migration history, expiry dates, security, authentication, file formats and relationship with other versions.

The use of well-developed standardised (yet extensible) metadata schemes should facilitate the discovery, use and management of digital information. Ideally, providing metadata should be an integral part of creating documents. So, we need a standard set of metadata that is simple enough for easy use by creators and maintainers of digital information, yet sufficiently descriptive to help users locate the resources. One attempt at such an objective, the Dublin Core, lists fifteen elements that describe the essential features of documents and artifacts and can be used as a basis for specialised metadata schemes.

The Digital Library Forum (DLF) Systems Architecture Committee describes three different types of metadata as stated in the Making of America II (MOAII) Testbed Project White Paper:

  1. Descriptive Metadata which is used in the discovery and identification of an object. Examples include MARC and Dublin Core records.
  2. Structural Metadata which is used to display and navigate a particular object for a user and includes the information on the internal organization of that object. Structural metadata could exist on various levels of complexity. For example: a given diary has three volumes:
    - volume one is comprised of two sections called dated entries and accounts respectively;
    - the entry section has two-hundred entries;
    - entry twenty is dated August 4th , 1890 and starts on page fifty of volume one.
  3. Administrative Metadata which represents the management information for the object: the date it was created, its content file format (JPEG, JTIP, etc.), rights information, etc. Another form of administrative metadata, the A-Core, has been proposed to facilitate the administration of metadata.

The boundaries of these three types of metadata however are not necessarily distinct from each other, nor exclusive of other types of metadata. Preservation Metadata, for example, although described by Michael Day as a specialised form of Administrative Metadata, has received specific attention recently, and can also include elements that may be considered Structural Metadata by definition. Preservation Metadata is the most relevant metadata category to the preservation of access to digital materials and is covered in more depth on its own resource page on the PADI site.

Descriptive Metadata designed for resource discovery assists in the process of retrieving information by enabling users to initially discover the existence of the information, to locate it and then to determine if it is the information that they want.

Types of metadata schemes currently used for networked electronic documents are:

  • automatically generated indexes used by in-house software and locater services such as WebCrawler, Alta Vista, Open Text, Lycos etc;
  • metadata applied by creators, indexers or cataloguers such as Dublin Core or cataloguing records, such as MARC (Machine Readable Catalogue - from the Machine-Readable Bibliographic Information Committee)

Metadata can be stored within the resource it describes (eg file formats that support decriptive headers), separate from the resource (eg an external catalogue) or separate but linked to the resource (eg a file linked with the digital object in a repository structure).

An example of storing the metadata with the resource is a World Wide Web (WWW) page. The standard for WWW allows metadata about the page to be embedded within the page. This embedded metadata is not seen when the page is viewed. The advantage of embedding the metadata within the resource is the tight coupling between the metadata and the resource. Whenever the resource is copied or moved, the metadata goes with it. Whenever the resource is modified, the metadata may be modified as well. When the resource is deleted, the metadata goes away as well.

The alternative is to store the metadata and the resources on separate servers. Since the metadata is normally much smaller than a resource, this means that a single server can store a large amount of metadata. This makes searching more efficient: fewer servers need to be accessed to search the metadata. The disadvantage of separating the metadata and the resource is that the automatic linkage is lost. A resource could be copied, moved, deleted or modified without modifying the associated metadata.

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Articles

Long-term Preservation of Digital Humanities Scholarship
Cantara, Linda (Date Created: 2006)
Digital preservation metadata requirements of digital humanities resources.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=A
rticle&contentId=1541922
Historical 2003 RLG-CIMI Symposium : Ready to Wear : Metadata Standards to Suit Your Project
Research Libraries Group (Date Created: 29 Jul 2003)
This is a report of a forum sponsored by RLG (Research Libraries Group) and the CIMI Consortium held May 12-12, 2003. The forum discusses the major metadata standards. Presentations available.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/09/28/0000073852/viewer/file7
05.html
Archival Metadata
Duff, Wendy; van Ballegooie, Marlene In: DCC Digital Curation Manual (Date Created: May 2006)
The purpose of this instalment of the DCC Digital Curation Manual is 'to provide an introduction to archival metadata and its potential in supporting the preservation and reuse of digital data and information.' It also explains some of the ways in which archival metadata may be able to support preservation requirements and highlights a number of initiatives such as InterPARES 2 and the Victoria Electronic Records Strategy. Future developments such as automated metadata extraction are also discussed.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/curation-manual/chapters/archival-metada
ta/
Also available in pdf
Archiving Web Sites for Preservation and Access : MODS, METS and MINERVA
Guenther, Rebecca; Myrick, Leslie (Date Created: Apr 2007) (United States of America)
This article examines the technical challenges in harvesting and managing web archives and metadata strategies using as an example the Library of Congress' Minerva project.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a902777368~db=all~ord
er=page
Journal of Archival Organization, April 2007, Vol 4 No1-2, p 141-166 and through InformaWorld
Historical Audio Archiving for 100 Years & Longer : Once We Decide What to Save, How Should We Do It?
Gladney, Henry (Date Created: Jul 2001)
Gladney's 10 page letter to the editor of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society places the issues of audio preservation within the frame and concerns of digital preservation generally. It also provides a critique of current digital preservation approaches. He argues that low cost technology has encouraged the use of digital systems for audio by many libraries and archives but that little attention has been paid to the long term preservation of audio documents. These "incompletely solved challenges", he further states, avail themselves of technical solutions, but that the greatest issues will be economic and political.
http://www.aes.org/journal/suppmat/gladney_2001_7.pdf
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 49, no. 7/8, July/August 2001
Australian Government RecordKeeping Metadata Standard Version 2.0
National Archives of Australia (NAA) (Date Created: Jul 2008) (Australia)
This is a completely revised edition of the "Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies". It describes information about records that the National Archives of Australia recommends be captured in EDRM and business systems used by Australian Government agencies.
ISBN: 9781920807573
http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/create-capture-describe/descr
ibe/RKMS/index.aspx
Available for download in PDF
Australian METS Profile - a Journey about Metadata
Pearce, Judith; Pearson, David; Williams, Megan; Yeadon, Scott In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: 17 Mar 2008) (Australia)
This article describes the development of the Australian METS Profile a generic profile designed to support the collection and access to content in Australian digital repositories. The profile was registered in December 2007 and a subprofile, The Australian METS Journal Profile, in early 2008.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/pearce/03pearce.html
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Historical Automated Digitisation of Printed Material for Everyone: The METADATA ENGINE Project
Mühlberger, Günter In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Jun 2002)
This article provides an overview of the principle and workflow of an automated digitisation and metadata generation system, developed by the European Union METADATA ENGINE Project co-ordinated by the University of Innsbruck. The system is capable of automatically creating both administrative and structural metadata for digitised material by combining systematic analysis of documents and layout, a database of rules based on a "grammar" of books and journals, and optical character recognition (OCR) and segmentation and heirarchical ordering technology.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070519/viewer/file1
572.html#feature1
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Historical Automatic Exposure: Capturing Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images
Research Libraries Group (Date Created: Jan 2004) (United States of America)
This article explores a Research Libraries Group (RLG) initiative that seeks to enable cultural heritage institutions capture the data elements proposed by the draft standard, NISO Z39.87 Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images. This standard provides a set of data elements, essential to an institution’s ability to manage and preserve its digital images. Included in the article are ways cultural heritage institutions are dealing with the capture of technical metadata and gives examples of harvesting tools that have been employed by cultural heritage institutions world-wide.
http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/automaticexposure/ae_whitepa
per_2003.pdf
Automating Semantic Metadata Extraction
Kim, Yunhyong (Date Created: 03 Sep 2007)
This briefing paper from Digital Preservation Europe discusses work done at the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institution (HATII), University of Glasgow, to automate the extraction of semantic metadata from digital objects.
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/publications/briefs/semantic%2
0metatada.pdf
Digital Preservation Europe Briefing Paper
Battle of the Buzzwords : Flexibility vs. Interoperability When Implementing PREMIS in METS
Guenther, Rebecca S. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jul 2008) (United States of America)
This article considers the issues in using PREMIS with METS and introduces the Guidelines for using PREMIS with METS for exchange which have been developed by the PREMIS Maintenance Activity in order to address some of the difficulties.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july08/guenther/07guenther.html
Historical Building A Digital Library Of Television News
Breeding, Marshall (Date Created: Jun 2003) (United States of America)
This article is a brief overview of the processes involved in establishing a digital archive of television news videotapes at the Vanderbilt Television News Archives in the USA. The author examines some technical apects of converting and preserving the videotape into a digital format; explains the different phases of the project, such as the creation of metadata and the establishment of the digitisation process; and provides an overview of the costs and challenges facing the project.
http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=10346
Also available in PDF version, Computers in Libraries, June 2003, Vol 23, Issue 6, ISSN 1041-7915 and by subscription online at www.ebscohost.com/
Historical Building a Robust Knowledge Base for Digital Formats
Ockerbloom, John Mark (Date Created: 21 Apr 2004) (United States of America)
FRED (Format REgistry Demonstrator) is a proof-of-concept prototype format registry which is part of the Mellon-funded TOM (Typed Object Model) project. This is a brief overview of FRED and includes characteristics of the registry, how formats are described and future challenges.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:MS2-0fFViSkJ:www.diglib.org/forum
s/spring2004/powerpoint/ockerbloom0404.ppt+Building+a+Robust+Knowledge
+Base+for+Digital+Formats&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1
Historical Can We Save Our Audio-visual Heritage?
Teruggi, Daniel In: Ariadne (Date Created: 30 Apr 2004)
PrestoSpace is the new FP6 integrated project, a major international initiative seeking to find preservation solutions for analogue media. The Programme deals with different components essential for preservation including restoration, storage, archive management and description (metadata). PestoSpace covers digital preservation of all types of audio-visual collections.
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue39/teruggi/
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Capturing Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images
Dale, Robin L.; Waibel, Günter In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Oct 2004)
This article examines the importance of technical metadata in the preservation of digital images. It describes NISO (National Information Standards Organization) Z39.87 and the documentation of file formats, the development of a data dictionary independent of file formats by PREMIS, the automatic exposure initiative which will automate technical metadata collection and emerging developments in archival file formats.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file1
195.html#article1
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Historical Cedars Metadata Brainstorming : A Report From a Meeting : Cedars Project Document AIS03
Day, Michael, Metadata Officer, UKOLN (Last Updated: 18 Jun 1999)
A report from a meeting held in the Royal Historical Society Meeting Room, Main Library, University College London, 24 May 1999.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cedars/papers/ais03/
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Historical CEDARS Project Report: April 1998 - March 2001
CEDARS Project Team (Date Created: Jun 2001) (United Kingdom)
The report of the first three years of the CEDARS project, a focussed investigation into digital preservation issues. The report comprises an overview of the CEDARS demonstrator archive established across the CEDARS partners, the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Leeds, and contains case studies for a variety of deposited digital materials and basic recommendations for use of migration and emulation as preservation strategies. The report also provides guidance and recommendations on organisational and management issues. The full report is available for download as PostScript or PDF.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/OurPublications/cedarsrepmar01exec.html
Historical Collaboration between RLG and OCLC With Digital Archiving Initiatives
Bellinger, Meg; Dale, Robin In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: Dec 2001) (United States of America)
An interview with Robin Dale of the Research Libraries Group and Meg Bellinger of OCLC Digital & Preservation Resources, in which they discuss the collaboration of RLG and OCLC in digital archiving initiatives, including the joint preservation metadata intiative, characterisation of reliable digital archives and long-term digital archiving programs. Anticipated future collaborations and perceived obstacles to digital preservation are also noted.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070513/viewer/file1
628.html#interview
New Cross Media: An Introduction to Metadata
JISC Digital Media (Date Created: 27 Jan 2009) (United Kingdom)
This advice is part of the JISC Digital Media website and is the first in a series on metadata. It defines metadata and introduces some of the key themes and issues which are then explored in more depth in other papers in the series.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/crossmedia/advice/metadata-overview/
Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata : Final Report of the PREMIS Working Group
PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) Working Group (Date Created: May 2005) (United States of America)
In 2003, the OCLC and RLG established the PREMIS Working group of which this is the final 237 page report. The report explains and contextualises the data dictionary which is a set of core preservation metadata applicable to digital preservation. Included in the report are the data model, the PREMIS Data Dictionary version 1.0 and examples for describing various media.
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-final.pdf
Data Model for Preservation Metadata
Di Iorio, Angela (Date Created: 02 Nov 2007)
This briefing paper from Digital Preservation Europe provides an overview of the work of the PREMIS (Preservation Metadata; Implementation Strategies) working group, summarises the PREMIS data model and introduces the PREMIS data dictionary.
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/publications/briefs/PREMIS_DiI
orio_last_3.pdf
Digital Preservation Europe Briefing Paper
Historical Developing a Digital Preservation Strategy at Edinburgh University Library
Semple, Najla (Date Created: Jan 2004) (United Kingdom)
This article concentrates on a digital preservation pilot project developed at the Edinburgh University Library. It not only provides the background to the project, but includes descriptions of preservation metadata schema, the main features of the Library’s OAIS -based pilot archive, its integration of the METS standard, as well as plans for merging both METS and OAIS into the Library’s new digital object management system.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03055720410530979
Also available in PDF version and in VINE, Vol 34, No 1, 2004, pp. 33-37, ISSN 0305-5278 (Special Issue: Digital Preservation and Libraries. Part One).
Developing a Trusted Digital Repository: the OCLC Experience
Lawson, Dawn; Spies, Phyllis B (Date Created: Jan 2004) (United States of America)
This article focuses on the OCLC’s (Online Computer Library Centre) experience in developing a digital archive. The development of standards for digital archiving and preservation metadata with RLG (Research Libraries Group) in defining the main attributes of a trust digital repository is described, as are the main tools and functions of the archive including the harvest, ingest and dissemination of archived objects. The Connecticut State Library’s use of OCLC’s Web archiving tools is also discussed.
http://ninetta.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03055720410530960
Also available in PDF version and in VINE, Vol 34, No 1, 2004, pp. 27-32, ISSN 0305-5278 (Special Issue: Digital Preservation and Libraries. Part One).
Developing Preservation Metadata for Use in Grid-Based Preservation
Hutt, Arwen; Kozbial, Ardys; McDonald, Robert; Sutton, Don; Westbrook, Brad (Date Created: 29 Sep 2008) (United States of America)
This paper given at iPRES 2008 (British Library Conference Centre, 29-30 Sept. 2008) describes the preservation metadata to be used for the Chronopolis Digital Preservation Framework being developed collaboratively in the U.S. as a digital preservation system within a grid-based network.
http://www.bl.uk/ipres2008/presentations_day1/23_Hutt.pdf
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Historical Digital Asset Management Systems for the Cultural and Scientific Heritage Sector
DigiCULT Consortium (Date Created: Dec 2002)
The second of three thematic issue papers from the Preservation and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage Unit of the Information Society Directorate General of the European Commission Digital Assett Management Systems (DAMS) and their role in the cultural and scientific heritage communities. The journal includes papers that argue the need for DAMS to create renewable resources that can be managed through their entire life cycle, as well as listing system benifits and shortcoming of DAMS in the cultural heritage community. System designers, curators, digital collection managers and exponents of digitisation consider the role of the systems in the different sectors and highlight differing understandings and expectations.
http://www.digicult.info/downloads/thematic_issue_2_021204_low_resolut
ion.pdf
Historical Digital Preservation : an Introduction to the Standards Issues Surrounding the Deposit of Non-Print Publications
Bide, M., Potter, E. J. , Watkinson, A. (Date Created: Sep 1999) (United Kingdom)
This study aims to focus attention on the issues surrounding legal deposit of electronic publications in the United Kingdom. The report defines electronic publications, how they should be selected for legal deposit and provides an outline of digital preservation strategies. The study provides a good summary of relevant digital preservation issues, focussing on legal deposit.
ISBN: 1873671253
http://www.bic.org.uk/files/pdfs/digpres.pdf
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Historical Digital Preservation: The Australian Experience
Woodyard, Deborah (Date Created: Oct 2000) (Australia)
This paper, presented at the 3rd Digital Library Conference: Positioning the Fountain of Knowledge, discusses how and what is being digitally preserved in Australia. Current projects include standardizing metadata and preserving audio collections and electronic publications. Cooperative projects, such as PANDORA and PADI are two of the projects mentioned.
http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/dw001004.html
Historical Digitisation of Library Materials: Report of the Concertation Meeting and Workshop held in Luxembourg 14 December 1998
European Commission. Directorate General XIII-E/4. Telematics for Libraries. Ed. Marc Fresko, Applerace Ltd. (Date Created: Jan 1999) (Luxembourg)
Proceedings of a Concertation Meeting and Workshop organised by the European Commission, Directorate General XIII-E/4, Telematics for Libraries which brought together many with experience in creating digital copies of materials held in libraries. A discussion of metadata for managing digital objects is included as is a comparative study of digital preservation guidelines.
ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/digicult/digit.pdf
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Historical Disclosing Digital Cultural Wealth: Museums and the Open Archives Initiative
Perkins, John In: Cultivate Interactive (Date Created: Feb 2002)
The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) develops and promotes technical standards to allow the creation of metadata repositories that can be further harvested and processed. This article provides a broad overview of the testing of the OAI protocol by the Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI), as well as noting other implementers in the museum community and directions for further research.
http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue6/cimi/
Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1: Reference Description
This is a Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Recommendation which defines the DC elements. Publication as a recommendation signifies that the specifications are stable and are supported for adoption by the Dublin Core community.
http://purl.org/DC/documents/rec-dces-19990702.htm
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Historical Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Progress Report and Workplan for 2002
Dekkers, Makx ; Dublin Core Metadata Initiative; Weibel, Stuart L. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Feb 2002)
This report summarizes the accomplishments and changes that took place in the Initiative during 2001 and outlines the workplan for 2002.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february02/weibel/02weibel.html
Historical E-Mail-XML Demonstrator: Technical Description
Testbed Digitale Bewaring (Date Created: Oct 2002) (Netherlands)
This report describes the prototype software developed by the Dutch Testbed Digitale Bewaring project in its investigations of the issues of long-term preservation of email messages. The solution is based on customisation of Microsoft Outlook to allow communication with a central server responsible for metadata collection, conversion and archiving of both messages and metadata in XML. The report is in PDF format.
http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/bibliotheek/docs/email-demo-en.pdf
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Historical Encoded Archival Description : An Introduction and Overview
Pitti, Daniel V. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Nov 1999)
This article provides an overview and introduction to the emerging communication standard, Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november99/11pitti.html
Historical ERPANET Workshop: XML as a Preservation Strategy - Papers
ERPANET (Date Created: 09 Oct 2002)
Presentations from the ERPANET Workshop of XML as a Preservation Strategy, held in Urbino, Italy, 9-11 October, 2002. Various experiences to date and potential roles for XML in preservation of digital information are covered.
http://www.erpanet.org/events/2002/urbino/index.php
Feasibility Study Into Approaches to Improve the Consistency With Which Repositories Share Material : Final Report for JISC
Charlesworth, Andrew; Ferguson, Nicky; Lease Morgan, Eric; Reitlyn, David; Schmoller, Seb; Smith, Neil (Date Created: 07 Nov 2008) (United Kingdom)
This report (53 p) prepared for JISC focuses on consistency of practice between repositories in supporting the sharing of materials. Its findings are based on consultation and interviews with people involved in repository development mainly in the UK but also internationally. Recognising the heterogenity amongst repositories, it makes useful detailed recommendations that can be applied generally. Recommendations are made in relation to repository policy development, exposure and principles; clarification of goals, roles and funding; metadata costs and benefits ; standards; collaboration; content exposition; and encouraging research and development.
http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/256/1/jisc-clax-final-report-repocon.p
df
Future Directions in Metadata Remediation for Metadata Aggregators
de Groat, Greta (Date Created: Feb 2009) (United States of America)
This report was commissioned by the Digital Library Federation through the DLF Aquifer initiative . It reports on a project to inventory and evaluate existing tools and services for metadata mapping, remediation and enhancement and their general applicability across digital library and cultural heritage environments. This research shows that only a small number are usable as they are, most require more work to make them generally applicable. This document provides a reference framework for considering tool development priorities and a road map for potential collaboration.
http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/dlf110.pdf
Historical Guidance on expressing the Dublin Core within the Resource Description Framework (RDF)
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (Date Created: 1 Jul 1999)
This document is a Working Draft of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and describes how Dublin Core offers a means by which diverse resources might be described for discovery in an interdisciplinary context, and XML/RDF provides the structure for unambiguous expression of this information.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/resources/dc/datamodel/WD-dc-rdf/
Historical IASSIST 2000 : Data in the Digital Library: social, spatial, and government data services: Electronic Presentation Archive
University of Chicago (Date Created: Jun 2000) (United States of America)
Presentations at the 26th conference of the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) related to managing, preserving and providing access to digital collections in archives and libraries.
http://www.src.uchicago.edu/datalib/ia2000/presentations/presentation.
htm
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Historical Identifying Metadata Elements with URIs : the CORES Resolution
Baker, Thomas; Dekkers, Makx In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jul 2003)
At a November 2002 meeting, the CORES Project (Information Society Technologies Programme, European Union) passed a resolution to assign Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to metadata elements of several major metadata standards, including DOI, Dublin Core, GILS and ONIX. This article presents the text of the resolution and then summarises the position of organisations that maintain the metadata standards and notes any problems that have emerged in assigning URIs.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july03/baker/07baker.html
Historical Implementing Metadata in Digital Preservation Systems : the PREMIS Activity
Lavoie, Brian F. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Apr 2004) (United States of America)
This article briefly discusses the current and future activities of the PREMIS project. The history and background to the development of PREMIS is also discussed.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april04/lavoie/04lavoie.html
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Implementing Preservation Repositories for Digital Materials : Current Practice and Emerging Trends in the Cultural Heritage Community : a Report by the PREMIS Working Group
OCLC/RLG PREMIS Working Group (Date Created: Sep 2004)
PREMIS, an international working group jointly sponsored by OCLC and RLG, reports the findings of a survey focused on current implementations and preservation metadata management practices of digital preservation repositories. The survey was conducted between December 2003 and February 2004 and drew respondents from 48 libraries, archives and other institutions from Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The survey covered repository services, models and policies, as well as architecture, storage, preservation processes and metadata. The report summarises and analyses the range of responses and notes a number of trends emerging in practice.
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/surveyreport.pdf
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Historical Information Infrastructures for Digital Preservation : A One Day Workshop : Conference Presentations
6 Dec 2000
Research Libraries Group
Papers from digital preservation workshop.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/09/28/0000073852/viewer/file5
26.html
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Historical Integrating Metadata Schema Registries With Digital Preservation Systems To Support Interoperability: A Proposal
Day, Michael (Date Created: 2003)
A paper presented by Michael Day at the 2003 Dublin Core Conference in Seattle argued that metadata registries may assist in managing metadata in repositories and may also support the re-use and exchange of metadata and/or information packages. The paper describes the development of metadata schemas by national libraries, research initiatives, recordkeeping institutions and digitisation programs and notes that interoperability between these schemas is desirable. Day suggests that metadata registries may be a useful tool that provide authoritative information on schema and element specifications and inter-scheme mappings. They could possibly also support the re-use of metadata and the exchange of information packages between trusted repositories.
http://www.siderean.com/dc2003/101_paper38.pdf
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Historical Integrity and Authenticity of Digital Cultural Heritage Objects
DigiCult Consortium (Date Created: Aug 2002)
The first of three thematic issue papers from the Preservation and Enhancement of Cultural Heritage Unit of the Information Society Directorate General of the European Commission addresses issues of preservation of the integrity and authenticity of digital objects. Amongst the articles are a discussion of what constitutes authenticity, a paper outlining the level at which authenticity should be addressed, a listing of standards and projects, and an argument for cooperation. The journal is illustrated with case studies from traditional archives as well as sound and vision archives.
http://www.digicult.info/downloads/thematic_issue_1_final.pdf
Historical International Organisation for Standardisation : Organisation Internationale De Normalisation : ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11: Coding of Moving Pictures and Audio : MPEG-21 Overview v.5
MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) (Date Created: Oct 2002)
"MPEG-21 aims at defining a normative open framework for multimedia delivery and consumption for use by all the players in the delivery and consumption chain. This open framework will provide content creators, producers, distributors and service providers with equal opportunities in the MPEG-21 enabled open market. This will also be to the benefit of the content consumer providing them access to a large variety of content in an interoperable manner."
http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-21/mpeg-21.htm
Historical Invest to Save: Report and Recommendations of the NSF-DELOS Working Group on Digital Archiving and Preservation
Hedstrom, Margaret; Ross, Seamus (Date Created: 2003)
This report identifies research challenges, development opportunities and solutions for problems associated with the preservation of digital information. Consisting of six main areas, the report presents digital preservation challenges; looks at the benefits of long-term preservation; summarises a set of principles and assumptions to guide the research agenda; highlights the work to date within this field; discusses a research agenda, including emerging research; and addresses the need for additional areas of support.
http://eprints.erpanet.org/archive/00000048/01/Digitalarchiving.pdf
Investigation into Archiving Geospatial Data Formats
Banning, John; Hoebelheinrich, Nancy (Date Created: 11 Mar 2008) (United States of America)
This study investigated the kind of information required in archiving geospatial data and documents the research that was undertaken into metadata models and data elements. It compares three different approaches the FGDC content standard, PREMIS and the guidelines for Geospatial Electronic Records.
http://www.ngda.org/reports/NGDA%20Reports/InvestigateGeoDataFinal.pdf
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Historical Issues and Approaches to Preservation Metadata
Day, Michael; UKOLN (Last Updated: 24 Feb 1999)
The creation and use of metadata is likely to become an important part of all digital preservation strategies whether they are based on hardware and software conservation, emulation or migration. The UK Cedars project aims to promote awareness of the importance of digital preservation, to produce strategic frameworks for digital collection management policies and to promote methods appropriate for long-term preservation - including the creation of appropriate metadata.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/presentations/rlg-npo/warwick.html
also at: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/presentations/rlg-npo/warwick.html
JHOVE2 : a Next-Generation Architecture for Format-Aware Digital Object Preservation Formatting
Harvard University Library (Last Updated: 01 Jun 2006) (United States of America)
The paper discusses the scope of the JHOVE2 (JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment) project proposal. This project will seek to retain existing JHOVE functionality and refactor the existing architecture, support enhancements, increase the range of supported formats, and develop modules for supporting key preservation processes. Input from the JHOVE user community will be sought as part of the design phase. The proposal was submitted by Harvard University, Portico, and Stanford University to the Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) initiative.
http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/JHOVE2-proposal.doc
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Historical Like Russian Dolls : Nesting Standards for Digital Preservation
Waibel, Gunter In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Jun 2003)
This article discusses three standards for digital preservation, the Open Archival Information System (OAIS), the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) and the NISO Data Dictionary - Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images. The article describes what the standards do and how they can be utilised, noting especially the hierarchical relationship of the three standards, such that the higher level one provides a framework for those below it.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070519/viewer/file9
26.html#feature2
Historical Linking Preservation Metadata and Collection Management Policies
Calanag, Maria Luisa; Sugimoto, Shigeo; Tabata, Koichi (Date Created: 2004)
This article focuses on the link between institutional policies and successful long term preservation of digital data. The study has found that in order to do this it is crucial to develop preservation guides that address the metadata granularity issues. The study highlighted a need for flexible approach when determining preservation metadata levels, since highly structured metadata can be set at a higher, collection level, while lower confidence in stability of digital data would require file level metadata. This approach leads to a concept of metadata encapsulated objects, which although representing primarily technical requirements, need also to be addressed at policy level in order to render successful preservation strategies.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/171/2004/00000023/00000002/a
rt00002
in Collection Building (0160-4953), Vol. 23, no. 2 (2004) pp 56-63.
Long Term Digital Preservation - Preserving the Authenticity and Usability of 3D Data
Doyle, Julie; Paquet, Eric; Viktor, Herna L. (Date Created: 2008)
This article presents a framework for the long term preservation of 3D data which uses emulation as a preservation strategy with a metadata framework to ensure future users can access and use the preserved 3D objects.
http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/iit-publications-iti/docs/NRC-50420.pdf
NRC 50420, Manuscript for International Journal of Digital Libraries, 2008.
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Historical Long-Term Preservation of Electronic Publications: the NEDLIB Project
Titia van der Werf-Davelaar, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The National Library of the Netherlands In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Sep 1999)
This article describes the NEDLIB project and explains how it is developing a deposit system for electronic publications (DSEP) on the basis of the OAIS model. Metadata for preservation and emulation experiments are also discussed.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september99/vanderwerf/09vanderwerf.html
Historical Long-Term Preservation of Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Liegmann, Hans (Date Created: May 2003) (Germany)
This paper describes Die Deutsche Bibliotek's voluntary deposit system for ETDs (electronic theses and dissertations) using NEDLIB's process model and incorporating the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). Issues discussed include preservation metadata, submission and transfer processes for ETDs and trusted digital repositories.
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/etd2003/liegmann-hans/HTML/index.html
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Historical On Making and Identifying a Copy
Paskin, Norman In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jan 2003)
The article canvasses issues associated with distinguishing particular instances and manifestations and the necessary granularity. It problematises the notion of a copy and the need to identify types of copies. The article is motivated by concerns regarding digital rights management, however, such issues are also appropriate to the management of multiple copies within a digital preservation system.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/paskin/01paskin.html
Historical Making of America II Testbed Project White Paper Version 2.0
Digital Library Federation (Date Created: 15 Sep 1998)
The MOA2 White Paper covers a broad range of topics, from overall guidelines in the collection of structural and administrative metadata and suggested best practice in imaging, to a detailed discussion of an object oriented approach in digital library construction and the development of tools to assist scholars.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MOA2/wp-v2.html
Metadata
Day, Michael In: DCC Digital Curation Manual (Date Created: 25 Jan 2006)
This instalment of the DCC Digital Curation Manual is a good introduction to metadata and preservation metadata, especially within the context of digital curation. It provides definitions, discusses the importance of, and uses for, metadata. There are also sections devoted to the OAIS model, preservation metadata, standards and package formats such as METS.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/curation-manual/chapters/metadata/
Available in html and pdf.
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Historical Metadata Approach to Preservation of Digital Resources: The University of North Texas Libraries' Experience
Cathy Nelson Hartman; Daniel Gelaw Alemneh; Samantha Kelly Hastings (Date Created: Aug 2002) (United States of America)
(Publisher abstract:) "Preserving long-term access to digital information resources is one of the key challenges facing libraries and information centers today. The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries has entered into partnership agreements with federal and state agencies to ensure permanent storage and public access to a variety of government information sources. As digital resource preservation encompasses a wide variety of interrelated activities, the UNT Libraries are taking a phased approach to ensure the long-term access to its digital resources. Formulation of preservation policy and creation of preservation metadata for electronic files and digital collections are among the most important steps. This paper discusses the issues related to digital resources preservation and demonstrates the role of preservation metadata in facilitating the preservation activities in general. In particular, it describes the efforts being made by the UNT libraries to ensure the long-term access and preservation of various digital information resources."
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view
/981/902
Metadata Coalface for Digital Repositories
Burton, Adrian; Blackall, Chris; Yeadon, Scott (Date Created: 07 Feb 2008) (Australia)
This paper delivered at the VALA 14th Biennial Conference 5-7 February 2008 in Melbourne, examines metadata issues encountered by developers and maintainers of digital repositories in Australia. Metadata developments in digital preservation, repository interoperability and discovery services through projects in the Australian higher education and research sector are discussed.
http://www.valaconf.org.au/vala2008/papers2008/120_Burton_Final.pdf
Historical Metadata Demystified : A Guide For Publishers
Brand, Amy; Daly, Frank; Meyers, Barbara (Date Created: Jul 2003)
The guide provides an introduction to metadata and a discussion of issues of particular interest to book and journal publishers. These include XML (schemas, workflows & syntax) and identifiers (such as ISBN, ISSN and DOI). It offers reasons why metadata is important for publishers and readers. Particular attention is paid to book-oriented metadata practices (such as ONIX) and journal-orientated practices (CrossRef).
ISBN: 1880124599
http://www.niso.org/publications/press/Metadata_Demystified.pdf
Metadata Enrichment for Digital Preservation
Dubin, Dubin; Futrelle, Joe (Date Created: Aug 2006) (United States of America)
This paper delivered at Extreme Markup Languages 2006 reports on a project to address the problems related to use of markup languages in digital preservation. The work done as part of the Echo DEPository Project, considers enrichment of metadata using RDF (Resource Description Framework).
http://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/handle/2142/9461
Metadata for Digital Libraries: State of the Art and Future Directions
Gartner, Richard (Date Created: Apr 2008) (United Kingdom)
This JISC TechWatch report (19 p.) considers the need for standardisation and integration within the Library community and the importance of metadata to simplify user access. This report argues that existing standards based on XML (including METS) should be used to produce a coherent integrated metadata strategy for digital libraries.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw_0801pdf.pdf
JISC Technology and Standards Watch Report TSW080. Available in PDF, Word and OpenOffice formats from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/services/services_techwatch/techwatch/techwatch_ic_reports2005_publ
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Historical Metadata for Digital Preservation : An Update
Day, Michael In: Ariadne (Date Created: 21 Dec 1999)
In this article, Michael Day reviews recent activities related to the development of metadata schemes for digital preservation. He outlines the emulation and migration-based strategies for digital preservation and the role that preservation metadata is poised to play in both these approaches. He reviews both library and archives-based initiatives in this area. He describes the OAIS model and its implications for the development of preservation metadata.
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue22/metadata/
In Ariadne, Issue 22
Metadata for Digital Preservation: The CEDARS Project Outline Specification
The Cedars Project Team and UKOLN (Date Created: Mar 2000)
This document describes the metadata elements which the Cedars project has identified as being useful to ensure that digital library resources can be archived and used in the future.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/OutlineSpec.htm
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/OTHER/SRoss.htm
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Historical Metadata for Long Term Preservation (NEDLIB-LB 5648 D4.2)
Catherine Lupovici; Masanès, Julien (Date Created: 21 Jul 2000)
This report aims to define the minimum metadata elements required for longterm preservation and in particular for the functioning of the NEDLIB DSEP (deposit system for electronic publications). The OAIS model is used as a basis for the DSEP model and its metadata.
http://nedlib.kb.nl/results/D4.2/D4.2.htm
Also available in pdf
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Historical Metadata for Preservation : CEDARS Project Document AIW01
Day, Michael In: Cedars : Curl Exemplars in Digital Archives Project (Last Updated: 3 Aug 1998) (United Kingdom)
This report is a review of metadata formats and initiatives in the area of digital preservation. It supplements the DESIRE Review of metadata (Dempsey et al. 1997). It is based on a literature review and information derived from a number of workshops.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cedars/AIW01.html
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Historical Metadata Framework Developed at the Tsinghua University Library to Aid in the Preservation of Digital Resources
Niu, Jinfang (Date Created: Nov 2002) (China)
This article describes a metadata framework developed at Tsinghua University, China, as part of the EMANI project with Goettingen State and University Library, Germany, Cornell University Library in the United States and Orsyell Library, France. The framework includes modules for rights, technical, descriptive, source and process metadata, allows description of resource structure and utilises the Metadata Transmission and Encoding Standard (METS).
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november02/niu/11niu.html
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Historical Metadata to Support Data Quality and Longevity
Rothenberg, Jeff (Last Updated: 3 Jun 1996)
This paper discusses two key needs for metadata: to support data quality and to ensure the longevity of data. In the latter category, the need for encapsulation with metadata which will enable future emulation is discussed.
http://web.archive.org/web/20040727082521/http://www.computer.org/conf
erences/meta96/rothenberg_paper/ieee.data-quality.html
Metadata Tools for Institutional Repositories
Nichols, David M.; Paynter, Gordon W.; Chan, Chu-Hsiang; Bainbridge, David; McKay, Dana; Twidale, Michael B.; Blandford, Ann (Date Created: Aug 2008) (New Zealand)
This working paper compares and contrasts metadata analysis tools developed independently at two New Zealand institutions; the Metadata Analysis Tool (MAT) at the University of Waikato, and the Kiwi Research Information Service (KRIS) at the National Library of New Zealand. Findings from deployment of both tools are summarised in a checklist of requirements for metadata analysis.
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00014732/01/PDF_(18_pages).pdf
Working Paper ISSN 1177-777X, 10/2008 August 2008
Metatools - Investigating Metadata Generation Tools - Final Report
Polfreman, Malcolm; Rajbhandari, Shrija (Date Created: 31 Oct 2008) (United Kingdom)
This is the final report of a JISC funded project to develop a framework for evaluating tools used for the purpose of generating Dublin Core Metadata from Web pages and scholarly works, to compare the quality of currently available metadata tools and to develop, test and disseminate prototype web services that integrate metadata generation tools.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/Home/publications/publications/metatools.aspx
Report available for download as PDF from this website.
METS : Standardized Encoding for Digital Library Objects
McDonough, Jerome P. (Date Created: Feb 2006)
Description from abstract - METS is an XML document format intended for the encoding of complex objects within digital libraries. It provides the means to record all of the descriptive, administrative, structural and behavioral metadata needed to manage and provide access to complex digital content. While it was designed to promote interoperability of digital content between digital library systems and contribute to the preservation of digital library materials, a variety of practical barriers to achieving these goals remain. However, many of these obstacles are shared by other communities of practice, such as the eLearning community working on the IMS content packaging standards and the MPEG-21 community, and the digital library community faces a unique opportunity at the moment to work closely with others to try to improve the interoperability of our content not only with our own repository systems, but those being used by others.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/1665225r3412540x/
International Journal on Digital Libraries, Volume 6, Number 2 / April, 2006. Available via subscription
mod_oai : An Apache Module for Metadata Harvesting
Harrison, Terry L.; Liu, Xiaoming; McFarland, Nathan; Nelson, Michael L.; Van de Sompel, Herbert (Date Created: 2005) (United States of America)
This article discusses mod_oai, an Apache 2.0 module that optimizes web content harvesting by building Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) capability into the Apache server. The article includes a comparison between web crawling and OAI-MPH harvesting and presents the results of experimentation using the authors' university web site as a testbed.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/cs/papers/0503/0503069.pdf
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Historical Moving Frontier : Archiving, Preservation and Tomorrow's Digital Heritage
Berthon, Hilary; Webb, Colin (Date Created: Feb 2000) (Australia)
This paper reviews international progress in digital archiving and preservation over the past one to two years. There have been developments in international collaboration, many archiving models are being tested, active work on a range of facilitating issues, and an ongoing debate over the most appropriate preservation strategies. A growing trend noted is the ongoing commitment of sharing information, for example, the redevelopment of the PADI website.
http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/hberthon2.html
PDFalso available from http://www.vala.org.au/vala2000/2000pdf/Ber_Web.PDF
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Historical National Library of Australia Initiatives Using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol For Metadata Harvesting
Boston, Tony (Date Created: Oct 2003) (Australia)
This paper, given at the International Seminar on the Use of Standards in the Development of Online Access Systems for Archives in Canberra in October 2003, describes the use of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) protocol for metadata harvesting at the National Library of Australia (NLA). It looks at the advantages of using the protocol on such NLA services as PictureAustralia, the National Bibliographic Database and the Library’s digital collections, and also provides a brief description of OAI software.
http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/2003/boston1.html
NDL Metadata Standards
National Diet Library (Japan) (Date Created: Oct 2007) (Japan)
This short article introduces two standards developed by the National Diet Library “metadata for preservation” and “metadata for exchange” which have been developed to support the NDL Digital Archives in response to the Digital Library Medium Term Plan for 2004.
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/ndl_newsletter/157/574.html
National Diet Library Newsletter October 2007, no. 157.
New Media Art: New Challenges for Museums in the 21st Century
Gagnier, Richard; Lafaille, Madeleine; Tolmatch, Elaine; Zeppetelli, Anne Marie (Date Created: 31 Mar 2008) (United States of America)
This paper delivered at Museums and the Web 2008 (Montreal, Quebec April 9-12, 2008) discusses the challenges of acquisition, exhibition and preservation of media art in museum collections and the related research by DOCAM Research Alliance. Also discussed are conclusions drawn from a survey of new media cataloguing practices, cataloging and conservation strategies and the need for preservation.
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/gagnier/gagnier.html
Also available on CD-ROM -J. Trant and D Bearman (eds.) Museums and the Web 2008. Proceedings and online.
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Historical Next stage: moving from isolated digital collections to interoperable digital libraries
Besser, Howard In: First Monday (Date Created: 03 Jun 2002)
In this paper, Howard Besser of UCLA notes that many existing digital library developments are primarily collection based and that they often lack service or preservation components. He then discusses various ways in which we may be able to move from these isolated digital collections to a network of interoperable digital libraries. In doing so, he emphasises that libraries are not just collections but organisations that provide a variety of services (including their long-term stewardship over collections) and uphold ethical traditions (e.g. on privacy and equal access).
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view
/958/879
Historical OAI and its Value to the Cultural Heritage Sector
Carpenter, Leona; Heery, Rachel In: DigiCULT.Info Newsletter (Date Created: Feb 2003)
This article discusses how the OAI (Open Archives Initiative) through its OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiatives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) enhances access to digital resources such as e-prints, images, multimedia and web pages. The article also discusses various projects and services using OAI to improve access to cultural resources, including 'hidden web' material, which is material that is in digital format but is not available through the usual Internet searching facilities.
http://data.digicult.info/download/digicult_info3_low.pdf
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Historical OAI Rights White Paper : September 26 2003
Lagoze, Carl; Nelson, Michael; Van de Sompel, Herbert; Warner, Simeon (Date Created: 26 Aug 2003)
Instigated by the Open Archives Initiative and Project RoMEO, the OAI-rights white paper describes the scope and issues in OAI rights. The goal of OAI rights is to investigate and develop means of expressing rights about metadata and resources in the OAI framework. This paper is intended as a foundation for work aimed at incorporating structured rights expressions into the OAI-PMH. This work will be undertaken by a technical group called oai-rights, and will result in a set of OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) guidelines scheduled for release in second quarter 2004
http://www.openarchives.org/documents/OAIRightsWhitePaper.html
Historical Open Archival Information System Reference Model: Introductory Guide
Lavoie, Brian F (Date Created: Jan 2004)
This article provides an overview of the background, origins, functions and developments of the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) Reference Model. As stated by the author, "The OAIS reference model is a conceptualization of the environment, functional components and information objects associated with a system designed to effect the long-term preservation of digital materials". The article also lists the main responsibilities of an OAIS-type archive and provides examples of digital archiving systems that are OAIS-compliant.
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/lavoie_OAIS.pdf
Is part of the DPC (Digital Preservation Coalition) Technology Watch Series
Historical Open Archives Activities and Experiences in Europe : an Overview by the Open Archives Forum
Dobratz, Susanne; Matthaei, Birgit In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jan 2003)
This article describes the work of the Open Archives Forum as well as providing an overview of European activities in OAI compared to other countries. The Open Archives Forum provides support, dissemination and information for those new and existing agencies involved in initiating, planning and maintaining open archives. The Forum is split into three 'workpackages', workshops and disseminations, organizational validation and technical validation.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/dobratz/01dobratz.html
PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive. How Much Metadata is Enough?
Koerbin, Paul; Philips, Margaret E. (Date Created: 2007) (Australia)
This article discusses the development of the PANDORA Web Archive, policy and practices and metadata workflows and issues.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a909291621~db=all~ord
er=page
Journal of Internet Cataloging, Feb 2004 (NB: Cover date 2004, published 2007), Vol 7, no 2 p. 19-33
Paradigma Project and its Quest for Metadata Solutions and User Services
Albertsen, Ketil; Nuys, Carol van; Pedersen, Linda; Stenstad, Asborg (Date Created: Apr 2004) (Norway)
A paper examining the National Library of Norway’s Paradigma Project, which was presented at the 70th IFLA Conference in Buenos Aires in August 2004. The initiative (which is engaged in the harvesting and archiving of the Norwegian domain as part of the NLN’s legal deposit responsibilities) is described, and its work in exploring appropriate metadata solutions is analysed. Other topics surveyed include the incorporation of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model into the archive design, and the implementation of a proposed authentication service for document verification.
http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla70/papers/009e-Nuys.pdf
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PDF/A: Developing a File Format for Long-Term Preservation
LeFurgy, William G In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Dec 2003) (United States of America)
This article looks at current developments in the USA into the long-term preservation of text-based digital documents. A working group has prepared a draft preservation standard for Adobe�s Portable Format Document (PDF). Known as PDF/A, the standard �intends to specify the use of PDF in a manner that is specifically geared to long-term management and use. PDF/A would be ideally suited for documents whose content and appearance must remain stable over long periods of time�.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file1
491.html#feature1
Practical Preservation : the PREMIS Experience
Caplan, Priscilla; Guenther, Rebecca (Date Created: Jun 2005)
PREMIS was established to focus on the practical aspects of implementing preservation metadata in digital preservation. This article outlines the history, methods, issues and deliverables of the PREMIS Working Group and its subgroups, the Core Elements workgroup and the Implementation Strategies workgroup.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/caplan_guenther-librarytrends.pdf
Library Trends, Vol. 54, no. 1 (Summer 2005)
PREMIS : Preservation Metadata - Implementation Strategies Update 1: Implementing Preservation Repositories for Digital Materials: Current Practice and Emerging Trends in the Cultural Heritage Community
Caplan, Priscilla In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Oct 2004)
This article, the first of a series, reports on the PREMIS survey Implementing Preservation Repositories for Digital Materials : Current Practice and Emerging Trends in the Cultural Heritage Community : a Report by the PREMIS Working Group. This is a survey of cultural heritage institutions who are developing or planning a preservation repository. General observations are made of some of the results such as metadata practices and the need for metadata standards. Proposed future activies of PREMIS are also canvassed.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file1
195.html#article2
PREMIS : Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies Update 2: Core Elements for Metadata to Support Digital Preservation
Guenther, Rebecca In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Nov 2004)
This article reports on the Core Activities Subgroup of PREMIS Working Group. It describes the development of a data dictionary, which is a list of core elements and detailed information about how to apply them to support the long-term preservation of digital objects. Also described is the data model used to provide structure to the dictionary. Future plans such as the development the testbeds and XML schemas to implement the data dictionary are also discussed.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070511/viewer/file1
552.html#article2
PREMIS Requirement Statement Project Report
Clifton, Gerard; Langley, Somaya; Lee, Bronwyn (Date Created: Jul 2006)
This is the report of the Presta-Premis Requirement Statement Project which was conducted from December 2005 to June 2006. It was undertaken by the National Library of Australia for the Australian Partnership on Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The report specifies requirements for the collection metadata needed for long tem continuity of access to digital collections. The report includes recommendations on preservation metadata elements including mandatory elements; recommendations on tools for automatic metadata extraction; a recommended list of supported formats and a draft METS profile for exchanging preservation metadata and functional specifications and use cases for preservation events and event logging. The report concludes with a summary of 14 recommendations.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/presta.pdf
PREMIS With a Fresh Coat of Paint : Highlights from the Revision of the PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata
Lavoie, Brian F. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: May 2008) (United States of America)
This article provides an overview of the activities of the PREMIS editorial commitee. It discusses the review process for the PREMIS Data Dictionary and highlights changes to the data model, rights entity, significant properties and preservation level and extensibility. The article also briefly reports on other recent activities (commissioned reports and tutorials) and proposed future activities such as a registry of controlled vocabularies and relationship of PREMIS and METS.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may08/lavoie/05lavoie.html
Preservation and Access for Electronic College and University Records: Conference Proceedings.
Arizona State University (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
The Archives link links to papers presented at the current conference 1999 to 2005 which are available as powerpoint slides and abstracts.
http://www.asu.edu/ecure/
Preservation and Metadata
Maxymuk, John (Date Created: 31 Aug 2010)
This article provides an basic overview and definition of metadata and gives examples of various metadata initiatives.
http://ariel.emeraldinsight.com/vl=4721610/cl=40/nw=1/fm=html/rpsv/cw/
mcb/0888045x/v18n3/s8/p146
Historical Preservation Metadata
Day, Michael (Date Created: 11 Dec 2003)
This chapter provides an introduction to preservation metadata. It features the OAIS model and issues such as costs and interoperability. The author concludes that more practical applications and experience needs to be developed in the future.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/publications/iylim-2003/
Prepublication draft of chapter published in: G. E. Gorman and Daniel G. Dorner (eds.), Metadata applications and management, International Yearbook of Library and Information Management, 2003-2004
Preservation Metadata
Gartner, Richard; Lavoie, Brian (Date Created: Sep 2005)
This is a technology watch report from the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). It presents a comprehensive view of developments in preservation metadata, including METS, OAIS and Premis. It also includes useful background information, such as why preservation metadata is important and the requirements in the development of a preservation metadata schema. Examples are used to illustrate various developments. This is recommended reading for both the beginner to preservation metadata and more experienced practitioners.
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/reports/dpctw05-01.pdf
DPC Technology watch report 05-01
Preservation Metadata
Caplan, Priscilla In: DCC Digital Curation Manual (Date Created: Aug 2006)
This instalment of the Digital Curation Manual features preservation metadata including its significant properties and technical specifications. It examines the use of preservation metadata in the digital curation life cycle and discusses issues such as provenance and file format specification.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/curation-manual/chapters/preservation-me
tadata/
Also available in pdf.
Preservation Metadata - A Framework for 3D Data Based on the Semantic Web
Doyle, Julie; Viktor, Herna L.; Paquet, Eric (Date Created: 16 Nov 2008)
This poster paper given at ICDIM 2008 (3rd International Conference on Digital Information Management, Nov. 13-16 2008, University of East London, UK) focuses on the challenge of anticipating what semantic information should be included within a metadata framework for 3D digital objects and in what format it should be modelled. The paper provides a brief overview of related work and then describes the preservation metadata framework being developed at the National Research Council of Canada.
http://iit-iti.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/iit-publications-iti/docs/NRC-50421.pdf
NRC 50421, paper given at ICDIM 2008.
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Preservation Metadata : Pragmatic First Steps at the National Library of New Zealand
Searle, Sam; Thomson, Dave In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Apr 2003) (New Zealand)
This article outlines the development of the National Library of New Zealand’s (NLNZ) preservation Metadata Schema. The four entities of the NLNZ schema are discussed - the international context of preservation metadata, the local business requirements, and the future development and activities of NLNZ in preservation metadata.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april03/thompson/04thompson.html
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Historical Preservation Metadata and Digital Continuity
Knight, Steve In: DigiCULT.Info Newsletter (Date Created: Feb 2003) (New Zealand)
This article describes the National Library of New Zealand's digital preservation programme generally as well as describing the development of a preservation metadata schema as a means to ensure that digital resources are accessible in the long term. The schema, still under development, involves the preservation metadata applying to a 'logical object' which is then used as the preservation master. The author also discusses future issues that need to be addressed in order for the Library to be acknowledged as a 'trusted repository for New Zealand's digital heritage.
http://data.digicult.info/download/digicult_info3_low.pdf
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Historical Preservation Metadata for Digital Collections
Bradley, Kevin; Phillips, Margaret; Webb, Colin; Woodyard, Deborah (Date Created: 15 Oct 1999) (Australia)
A working group from the National Library of Australia has drafted this document to propose a set of metadata that will be required specifically for the purposes of preservation of digital materials.
http://www.nla.gov.au/preserve/pmeta.html
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Historical Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects : A Review of the State of the Art
OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata (Date Created: 31 Jan 2001)
A white paper of the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata, this fifty-page report examines current progress in preservation metadata development.
http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/presmeta_wp.pdf
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Preservation Metadata Initiatives : Practicality, Sustainability and Interoperability
Day, Michael (Date Created: Oct 2004)
This article discusses various specific and generic preservation metadata initiatives. Also discussed are sustainability and interoperability issues that arise from their development and use, including file format registries and metadata registries.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/preservation/publications/erpanet-marburg/day-p
aper.pdf
In: Frank M. Bischoff, Hans Hofman and Seamus Ross, Metadata in preservation: selected papers from an ERPANET Seminar at the Archives School Marburg, 3-5 September 2003.
Historical Provision of Digital Preservation Metadata : a Role for ONIX?
Brindley, Gavin; Muir, Adrienne; Probets, Steve (Date Created: Jul 2004)
ONIX is a metadata standard used in the publishing industry for data exchange. This article examines the suitability of ONIX metadata for digital preservation metadata requirements. The article describes the background to digital preservation before analysing whether ONIX could be integrated into and help populate the existing preservation metadata frameworks.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/rpsv/cw/mcb/00330337/v38n4/s3/p240
in Program : Electronic Library and Information Systems, ISSN 0033-0337, Vol. 38, issue 4, 2004, pp. 240-250.
Quantitative Evaluation of Dissemination-Time Preservation Metadata
Nelson, Michael L.; Smith, Joan A. (Date Created: 15 Sep 2008) (United States of America)
This paper presented at ECDL 2008 (Aarhus, Denmark 14-20 September 2008) discusses the feasibility of using a web server for just in time preservation metadata generation and selection of utilities to improve performance.
http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/pubs/ecdl-2008/preservation-metadata-ecdl-2
008.pdf
Also available in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 5173/2008, pp 346-357
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Historical Report on the Cedars Final Workshop
CEDARS Project; Day, Michael; Jones, Maggie (Date Created: 22 Apr 2002) (United Kingdom)
This invitation-only workshop was the final event hosted by the Cedars project before it closed. The workshop had a focus primarily on the work of Cedars but also included the work of CAMiLEON. The purpose of the workshop was to highlight the work of Cedars over the preceding four years, to provide a forum for debate and discussion on what the project had achieved and what should happen next, and to bring together the main beneficiaries of the project (CURL librarians) with representatives from the publishing community and other key decision makers.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/pubconf/umist/finalWorkshopRep.html
Historical Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation : Metadata Specifications
United States Government Printing Office (Date Created: Jun 2004)
The Report on the Meeting of Experts on Digital Preservation: Metadata Specifications is a summary of the second of two meetings held to assist GPO (United States Government Printing Office) in developing specifications for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) digitization project. This meeting, focusing on descriptive and preservation metadata, was held at GPO on June 14, 2004. A summary of the overall discussion of the experts and the necessary resources for the metadata package submission are included in the report.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/metadata_report_final.pdf
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Resource Harvesting within the OAI-PMH Framework
Lagoze, Carl; Nelson, Michael L.; Warner, Simeon; van de Sompel, Herbert In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Dec 2004)
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december04/vandesompel/12vandesompel.html
Historical Review: Some Comments on Preservation Metadata and the OAIS Model
Hofman, Hans In: DigiCULT.Info Newsletter (Date Created: Oct 2002)
A review and critique by Hans Hofman, appearing in DigiCULT.info 2 (October 2002), of the report by the OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata. The need for greater attention to the relationship between preservation processes and metadata and the requirements of the records and archival community in terms of record authenticity, context and relationships are noted. The article is available by accessing or downloading the entire DigiCULT.info 2 issue (PDF format).
http://www.digicult.info/downloads/digicult_info2.pdf
Rights in the PREMIS Data Model: A Report for the Library of Congress
Coyle, Karen (Date Created: Dec 2006) (United States of America)
This report was commissioned by the Library of Congress to feed into the revision of the PREMIS Data standard May 2005 to improve the rights entity. This report considers the various definitions of rights, the state of rights metadata, and surveys legislative actions in various nations which will provide a legal standing for digital preservation activities.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/Rights-in-the-PREMIS-Data-Model.pd
f
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Historical RLG Open Forum: Converging, Emerging Standards for Digital Preservation
Research Libraries Group (Date Created: Jun 2002) (United States of America)
This page provides links to presentations made at the RLG Open Forum held on June 16, 2002, as part of the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Altanta, Georgia, USA. Topics include standards work in preservation metadata for various media, the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) and work with the Open Archival Information Systems (OAIS) model.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/09/28/0000073852/viewer/file5
46.html
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Historical RLG Working Group on Preservation Issues of Metadata, Final Report, May 1998
Research Libraries Group (Last Updated: 21 May 1998)
This group was asked to identify the descriptive data elements that should be associated with digital master files that have preservation-based intent. The group examined the Dublin core elements and the Program for Cooperative Cataloging's USMARC-based core record standard and have listed the data elements extra to these core element lists that they believe are important to serve preservation needs for digital masters.
http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/digpresmetadata/report.htm
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Historical Scalable Models of Data Sharing in Earth Sciences
Helly, John; Koppers, Anthony; Staudigel, Hubert (Date Created: 23 Jan 2002) (United States of America)
this article discusses options for the publication, archiving and exchange of scholarly data in earth science disciplines and proposes a Metadata Interchange Format (.mif) that could be used for the effective sharing of data and metadata across digital libraries.
http://nsdl.sdsc.edu/papers/helly.et.al.2002.pdf
Also in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. Vol 4, 25 January 2003.
Historical Selection, Appraisal and Retention of Digital Scientific Data : Final Report
ERPANET (Date Created: 10 Feb 2004)
The seminar, held from 15th-17th of December 2003 at the Biblioteca Nacional in Lisbon, brought together more than sixty-five researchers, data managers, information specialists, archivists, and librarians from thirteen countries to discuss the issues regarding the long-term preservation of the scientific record. One of the major aims for this seminar was to provide an international forum to exchange information about data archiving policies and practices across different scientific, institutional, and national contexts. The seminar also highlighted some conceptual hurdles to overcome before effective collaboration between the diverse communities can take place.
http://www.erpanet.org/events/2003/lisbon/LisbonReportFinal.pdf
Final report of the ERPANET CODATA Workshop held at Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, December 15-17, 2003
Semantic Web Technologies for Digital Preservation : The SPAR Project
Bermes, Emmanuelle; Poupeau, Gautier (Date Created: 28 Oct 2008)
This poster given at ISWC 2008 ( 7th International Semantic Web Conference, Karlsruhe, Germany 28 Oct. 2008) explains why RDF is relevant for digital preservation and how it will be used with METS for the national Library of France's (BnF) SPAR (Système de Préservation et d’Archivage Réparti – Distributed Preservation and Archiving System) project.
http://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-401/iswc
2008pd_submission_14.pdf
Poster from ISWC 2008.
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Historical Standards for Electronic Publishing : An Overview
Bide, M. and Associates (Date Created: Aug 2000)
This report was commissioned by the NEDLIB project as a supplement to its Process Model for a Deposit System for Electronic Publications. The report, based on interviews with 14 European publishers, is intended to assist librarians to understand some of the issues in managing the deposit and preservation of electronic publications.
http://nedlib.kb.nl/results/e-publishingstandards.pdf
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Historical Towards a Global Digital Format Registry
Abrams, Stephen L; Seaman, David (Date Created: Aug 2003)
Based on a preliminary working group of members from the international library and archive sector, this paper traces the group’s efforts in investigating the establishment a new global format registry for the purposes of supporting the long-term preservation of digital materials. The authors claim that the digital format registry “will maintain persistent, unambiguous bindings between public identifiers for digital representation formats and the significant syntactic and semantic properties of those formats”. The paper covers areas such as the registry’s mission statement, data and service models, governance structure and business issues. The development of the registry service model is informed by the ANSI X3.285 Metamodel for the Management of Shareable Data, the OASIS ebXML Registry and IANA MIME media types
http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/128e-Abrams_Seaman.pdf
This paper was given at the World Library and Information Congress: 69th IFLA General Conference and Council, 1-9 August, 2003 in Berlin.
Understanding PREMIS
Caplan, Priscilla (Date Created: 01 Feb 2009) (United States of America)
This document provides an overview of the PREMIS preservation metadata standard and an easy introduction to the PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/understanding-premis.pdf
Also available in Spanish translation, "Entender PREMIS" from http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/UnderstandingPREMISspanish.pdf
Uses of Metadata in Public Administration
Cunningham, Adrian (Date Created: 06 Aug 2008)
This Digital Preservation Europe (DPE) briefing paper provides an introduction to the use of metadata in public administration. The objectives of metadata use, standards and the semantic web are touched on.
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/publications/briefs/uses_of_me
tadata_in_public_administration.pdf
Digital Preservation Europe Briefing Paper
Using METS, PREMIS and MODS for Archiving E-Journals
Dappert, Angela; Enders, Markus In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Sep 2008) (United Kingdom)
This article discusses the combined use of METS structural, PREMIS preservation and MODS descriptive metadata for the British Library's e-Journal system.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september08/dappert/09dappert.html
Historical Using XML for Long-term Preservation : Experiences from the DiVA Project
Andersson, Stefan; Hansson, Peter; Klosa, Uwe; Muller, Eva; Siira, Erik (Date Created: May 2003) (Sweden)
This paper describes the DiVA (Digitala vetenskapliga arkivet) Project which originated at Uppsala University in Sweden. The goal of the project is to create a searchable archive (DiVA Archive) for the long term preservation of those documents which are published in an electronic form such as theses, essays and working papers. This paper includes discussion of XML as a long term preservation format, the DiVA document format and the use of URN (uniform resource names) as persistent identifiers.
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/etd2003/hansson-peter/HTML/index.html
Historical W3C and Digital Libraries
Miller, James S.; World Wide Web Consortium In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: 15 Nov 1996)
This article outlines the need for the Digital Library community to work with the W3C to overcome the 'problems of our social and institutional structures' that prevent the implementation of technical solutions to persistent naming and metadata problems.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november96/11miller.html
D-Lib Magazine, November 1996
What are Metadata Standards
Higgins, Sarah (Date Created: 30 Aug 2006)
This DCC standards watch paper is a good introduction to metadata. The article briefly describes the relationship between metadata and digital curation, defines what a metadata standard is, and gives examples of these standards. There is also an extensive resource list of standards related links.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/standards-watch/what-are-metadata-standa
rds/

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Books

Metadata for Digital Resources: Implementation, Systems Design, and Interoperability
Foulonneau, Muriel; Riley, Jenn (Date Created: Feb 2008) (United States of America)
This practical handbook has been written for those embarking on a digitisation project and/or implementing a metadata program in cultural heritage institutions. It is intended to improve the usability of digital objects through adequate documentation and the use of tools for metadata management. It provides practical advice for libraries, archives, and museums dealing with digital collections in a wide variety of formats and from a wider variety of sources.
ISBN: 9781843343011
http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=1760&ChandosTitl
e=1
Hardback 9781843343028 Paperback 9781843343011
METS Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard: Primer and Reference Manual. Version 1.6
METS Editorial Board (Date Created: Sep 2007) (United States of America)
This reference manual (128 p.) describes METS, the background and how it can be used. It includes detailed chapters on authoring a METS document, elements of the schema, common constructs and standards, METS profiles and external schema and controlled vocabulary.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/METS%20Documentation%20final%2007093
0%20msw.pdf
PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata. Version 2.0
PREMIS Editorial Committee (Date Created: Mar 2008) (United States of America)
This document (224 p., 3.0MB) is a revision of the Final Report released in May 2005, incorporating changes based on comments and experiences from implementers. Major changes include expanded rights metadata, more extensive significant properties and preservation level information and a mechanism for extensibility for a number of metadata units.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/v2/premis-2-0.pdf
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Historical Preserving and Sharing Statistical Material
Royal Statistical Society; UK Data Archive (Date Created: 2002) (United Kingdom)
This booklet is aimed at promoting the preservation and sharing of electronic data. it also discusses what should be preserved and includes the RSS Code of Best Practice on the Preservation and Sharing of Statistical Material.
ISBN: 0-906805-02-3
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/publications/PreservingSharing.pdf
Historical Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries: 6th European Conference, ECDL 2002, Rome, Italy, September 16-18, 2002. Proceedings
Springer (Agosti, M; Thanos, C (Eds.)) (Date Created: Sep 2002)
Contains links to abstracts and papers presented at ECDL 2002 in areas of web archiving, e-book and web technologies, navigation, information and audiovisual retrieval, multimedia, preservation, classification and metadata. Access to the table of contents and abstracts is free-of-charge. (Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 2458)
ISBN: 3-540-44178-6
http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=issue&issn=0302-9743&vol
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Events

11th Annual Open Forum for Metadata Registries: Metadata DownUnder - Metadata, Semantics and Interoperability in Practice
19 - 22 May 2008 , Sydney, NSW Australia (Australia)
This forum will exchange information across a range of metadata application areas, including metadata standards in use, current standards developments, standards research and emerging needs. Application areas include transport systems, health manufacturing, statistics, government, defence and e-commerce. Presentation available from the program link.
http://www.metadataopenforum.org/index.php?id=36,187,0,0,1,0
2009 Conference and Members' Meeting of the TEI Consortium: Text Encoding in the Era of Mass Digitization
11 - 15 Nov 2009 , University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
TEI Consortium
(United States of America)
This conference is organized around the theme 'text encoding in the era of mass digitization'. It will feature keynote lectures, parallel sessions, the annual TEI business meeting, a poster session/tools demonstration and slam, and special interest group (SIG) meetings.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/spo/teimeeting09/
Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata : PREMIS Tutorial
17 - 18 Jul 2006 , Wolfson Medical Building, University of Glasgow, Scotland (United Kingdom)
The tutorial will cover both the PREMIS Data Dictionary and practical implementation issues. It will provide a walk-through of the data dictionary on July 17th and focus on XML rendering on July 18th. Both days will include hands-on exercises. The event will also allow PREMIS implementers an opportunity to share their experiences via short case studies. Workshop presentations and exercises available from the website.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/premis-2006/
DC 2003 : Dublin Core 2003 : Supporting Communities of Discourse and Practice : Metadata Research and Applications
28 Sep - 02 Oct 2003 , Seattle, Washington Has papers: Integrating Metadata Schema Registries With Digital Preservation Systems To Support Interoperability: A Proposal
Contains links to full text papers.
http://dc2003.ischool.washington.edu/
Long Term Repositories : Taking the Shock Out of the Future
31 Aug - 01 Sep 2006 , Conference Room, National Library of Australia, Canberra (Australia)
This workshop is designed to increase the sustainability of institutional repositories through the use of preservation metadata. There are links to powerpoint presentations
http://www.apsr.edu.au/longterm/index.htm
Museum Computer Network 32nd Annual Meeting : MCN 2004 : Great Technology for Collections, Confluence and Community
10 - 13 Nov 2004 , Hilton, Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States of America)
Papers include digitisation projects, digital preservation, metadata, museum websites, intellectual property rights.
http://www.mcn.edu/conference/MCN2004/delegate/mcn2004-d1a.htm
Some presentation slides available from the conference website
PREMIS - Preservation Metadata : Implementation Strategies
05 - 06 Feb 2009 , Rome Italy
Foundation Rinascimento Digitale
(Italy)
This workshop focuses on the PREMIS standard. It consists of two parts a tutorial by Rebecca Guenther providing an introduction to PREMIS and overview of current approaches for implementation and a Round Table evaluating the relationships between PREMIS and other metadata standards. Presentation slides and workshop report available from the website.
http://www.rinascimento-digitale.it/PREMIS-workshop.phtml
Historical RLG Forum - To Have and To Hold: Metadata and Institutional Repositories
Research Libraries Group (Date Created: Dec 2003) (United States of America)
As part of a one day forum held at the Library of Congress and the Chicago Historical Society on 9 & 12 December respectively, these powerpoint presentations, not only deal with metadata standards, but also cover issues relating to digital respositories, open source software such as DSpace and FEDORA, as well as digital preservation options of various RLG members.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/09/28/0000073852/viewer/file1
027.html
SIEDL 2008. First International Workshop on Semantic Interoperability in the European Digital Library
1 Jun 2008 , Tenerife, Spain (Spain)
Workshop to be held as part of the 5th European Semantic Web Conference, will focus on how the late advances on Semantic Web technologies can facilitate the way that European digital libraries exchange information within the framework of the web. Proceedings are available from the link at the top of the hompage.
http://multimedia.semanticweb.org/siedl/
Historical TEI and XML in Digital Libraries
30 Jun - 1 Jul 1998 , Library of Congress (United States of America)
This two day meeting focused on institutional applications of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), particularly in library settings. The Digital Library Federation sponsored this meeting to give focus, for the first time, to institutional applications of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), particularly in library settings. The meeting was organized as a set of concurrent working groups focusing on specific application issues, and introductory and concluding plenary sessions.There are links to presentations and summary recommendations.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/misc/ssp/workshops/teidlf/

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Organisations and Websites

Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS)
National Archives of Australia (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
This metadata standard is a set of 17 descriptive elements which government departments and agencies can use to improve the visibility and accessibility of their services and information over the Internet.
http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/publications/AGLS-Element.asp
x
Historical DC-ANZ Conference 2003 : conference papers
Dublin Core Australia New Zealand Group (Date Created: Feb 2003) (Australia; New Zealand)
The Dublin Core ANZ committee had an inaugural metadata conference in Canberra, Australia on the 26th, 27th and 28th February 2003. Most of the conference papers are available in .pdf.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070222200844/www.dc-anz.org/conf2003/DC-A
NZAgenda.html
Digital Libraries: Metadata Resources
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (Last Updated: 24 Oct 2005)
This site is maintained by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and links to a large number of articles and sites relating to data documentation and standards. The metadata links are grouped into common types for ease of navigation.
http://archive.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm
Digital Libraries: Metadata resources
IFLANet (Regularly Updated)
An IFLANet sponsored extensive list of links to metadata standards, selected papers and listings of topical events. The metadata links are grouped into common types for ease of navigation.
http://archive.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Has papers: Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1: Reference Description
This is the official home page for the Dublin Core and is the formal repository for information about the workshop series, working group activities, standards activities, and related information. The Dublin Core is a metadata element set intended to facilitate discovery of electronic resources. Originally conceived for author-generated description of Web resources, it has attracted the attention of formal resource description communities such as museums, libraries, government agencies, and commercial organisations.
http://purl.org/DC/
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Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR)
Harvard University Library (Regularly Updated)
In development since 2002, the GDFR (Global Digital Format Registry) is an ongoing international initiative. The GDFR working group comprises national and academic research libraries and archives. The GDFR was developed as a mechanism to provide trustworthy, sustainable and authoratitive information about data formats. This website also has information on data and service models, use cases and the GDFR mission statement. In April 2009 GDFR joined with PRONOM to form the Unified Digital Formats Registry (UDFR). The UDFR will support the requirements and use cases compiled for GDFR and will be seeded with PRONOM's software and formats database.
http://hul.harvard.edu/gdfr/
Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information
Baca, Murtha; Gill, Tony; Gilliland-Swetland, Anne (Last Updated: Sep 2008)
An updated web version, this publication includes essays, a crosswalk of current and emerging metadata standards, a glossary and useful URLS
http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/intrometadata/index.
html
Web version 3.0 published Sept 2008, print ,html and pdf versions available.
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Library of Congress Digital Repository Development : Core Metadata Elements
Library of Congress (Date Created: 18 May 2000) (United States of America)
This website provides an introduction to a table of metadata elements developed by the Library of Congress to support administrative and structural functions, such as access management, administration, discovery, persistent identification, presentation, digital preservation and preservation reformatting. There are links to the actual table of metadata elements, as well as to other Library of Congress standards under development.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/metadata.html
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Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS)
Library of Congress (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This is the official web site of the Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS) XML schema, a standard using XML for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata for objects within a digital library. The standard is being developed as an initiative of the Digital Library Federation, and is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/
Historical Metadata Projects, Resources, Workshops
European Commission DGXIII Telematics for Libraries (Last Updated: 8 Sep 1999) (United Kingdom)
This site contains many links to both Telematics and other projects, initiatives, workshops, events and general metadata resources.
http://www.cordis.lu/libraries/en/metadata/metahome.html
Metamap
University of Monteal (Date Created: 2003)
A pedagogic tool, Metamap provides visually organised links to definitions, links and information regarding standards, organizations, initiatives, file types, and issues related to metadata. The map is entertainingly constructed to resemble a subway map with each colour-coded line representing a particular category of knowledge. Selecting a “station” displays a window with a basic definition, relevant links, and related topics. Viewing of the map requires Adobe SVG viewer, which can be downloaded from the Metamap site.
http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/turner/meta/english/index.html
Also available in French.
mod_oai
Old Dominion University (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
Mod-oai is a joint project of the Old Dominion University Digital Library Research Group, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and is funded by the Mellon Foundation. The aim of the project is to make the content from Apache Web servers accessible via the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Web servers and Web crawlers would be able to selectively harvest from data repositories, for instance data gathering could be limited to files of a certain mimetype. The website provides an overview of the project including links to relevant organisations and describes members of the project team.
http://www.modoai.org/
Historical Open Archives Forum
Open Archives Forum (Date Created: 2003)
The Open Archives Forum (OAF) website is a valuable resource providing and promoting information and support to activities relating to open archives in Europe, particularly the Open Archives Initiative. The website includes information and reviews on technical issues relating to open archives, such as resource database which lists services, repositories, projects, software, organizations and metadata schemes; materials on the Open Archives Workshop Series, as well as other relevant reports and presentations. Also included is an online tutorial introducing the beginner to the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting . The forum is no longer active.
http://www.oaforum.org/index.php
PREMIS : Preservation Metadata Maintenance Activity
PREMIS (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This is the official website of the maintenance activities for the PREMIS data dictionary and XML schema. The data dictionary and schemas are the final product of the PREMIS (Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) working group. In May 2005 the data dictionary and schemas began a period of trial use. The PREMIS maintenance activity is responsible for maintaining, supporting, and coordinating future revisions to the PREMIS data dictionary. In April 2008 version 2.0 of the Data Dictionary was released.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/
textMD Technical Metadata for Text
Library of Congress (Date Created: Oct 2007) (United States of America)
This XML schema has been maintained by the Library of Congress since October 2007. TextMD was originally created by the New York University Digital Library Team. It is endorsed by METS and commonly used as an extension schema with METS adminstrative metadata section but also can be used alone or in the future with PREMIS. The schema is focused on documenting technical metadata for text based objects including OCR files.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/textMD/
UKOLN Metadata
Day, Michael In: Cedars : Curl Exemplars in Digital Archives Project (Regularly Updated) (United Kingdom)
A general metadata site providing links to projects, initiatives, registries and resources including some software tools for handling metadata and a glossary.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/
UKOLN: The UK Office for Library and Information Networking
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (Regularly Updated) (United Kingdom)
UKOLN is 'a national focus of expertise in digital information management.' Based at the University of Bath, it provides policy, research and awareness services to the UK library, information and cultural heritage communities.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) : Version 2
Public Record Office Victoria (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
This web site has links to the standard "Management of Electronic Records", its supporting specifications and the explanatory advices, which were revised in July 2003. The five supporting specifications include system requirements for preserving electronic records, metadata, standard electronic record format, long term preservation formats and export of electronic records to PROV (Public Record Office Victoria). Specification 4 was updated to include PDF/A,JPEG, JPEG-2000, MPEG-4 in Aug 2006 and Specification 5 was updated for the PROV's new digital Archive.
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/standard/version2.htm
Historical W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF)
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (Last Updated: 2004)
This site summarizes the work of the RDF Core Working Group which ceased in 2004. The page provides the official overview of the RDF initiative, providing links to versions of the specifications and other useful information sources. Follow up activities are available from the Semantic Web Activity home page.
http://www.w3.org/RDF/Overview.html
Working Group II : Implementation Strategies : PREMIS (PREservation Metadata : Implementation Strategies)
OCLC (Date Created: 2003)
This working group which is no longer active was sponsored by OCLC and RLG. It addressed implementation issues for preservation metadata. The website includes background information on this working group and the earlier working group (Preservation Metadata Framework Working Group), plus the products of the working groups activities (the PREMIS Data Dictionary) and links to the PREMIS Maintenance Activity.
http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/

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Online tutorial

METS : An Overview and Tutorial
Library of Congress (Date Created: Sep 2006) (United States of America)
This tutorial provides an introduction to the METS schema which is maintained by the Library of Congress. METS is a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/METSOverview.v2.html
Available in English, Italian, Portuguese and German from METS documentation http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/mets-schemadocs.html
Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial
Entlich, Richard; Kenney, Anne R; Rieger, Oya Y In: Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Last Updated: 15 Sep 2002) (United States of America)
An online digital imaging tutorial developed by the Department of Preservation and Conservation of Cornell University Library as an introduction to the use of digital imaging. Includes sections encompassing all the major aspects of digital imaging: Selection, Conversion, Quality Control, Metadata, Technical Infrastructure, Presentation, Digital Preservation, and Management. It is designed to be self-guided and self-paced, and complementary to the Moving Theory into Practice book and workshop series and includes frequent "reality checks" for evaluating the understanding of the presented material and provides suggestions for further reading.
http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/
OAI For Beginners : the Open Archives Forum Online Tutorial : OAI-MPH Tutorial
Open Archives Forum
This tutorial is an introduction to the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Contents include an overview, history and development of OAI-PMH, main technical ideas of OAI-PMH, implementing OAI-PMH, XML schemas and support for multiple record formats in OAI-PMH. Also includes a glossary.
http://www.oaforum.org/tutorial/

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Policies, Strategies & Guidelines

Historical Archival Preservation of Smithsonian Web Resources: Strategies, Principles, and Best Practices
Dollar Consulting (Last Updated: 18 Oct 2001) (United States of America)
Commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution Archives, this report provides guidelines to help ensure the capture, management and long-term preservation of Smithsonian Institution web sites. Incorporating an integrated records life cycle process model, it provides a set of recommendations for best practice and follow up, plus appendices on documentation of web sites and a preservation metadata model.
http://siarchives.si.edu/pdf/dollar_report.pdf
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Cedars Guide To: Digital Preservation Strategies
University of Leeds (Last Updated: 02 Apr 2002) (United Kingdom)
This guide includes recommendations about technical approaches to digital preservation based on the Cedars experience.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/guideto/dpstrategies/
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Historical Cedars Guide to: Preservation Metadata
University of Leeds (Date Created: Mar 2002) (United Kingdom)
This guide from the Cedars Project aims to provide a rationale for preservation metadata creation and maintenance, overviews the OAIS Reference Model, Cedars preservation metadata specification and outcomes of other intiatives, and the cost implications of preservation metadata.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/guideto/metadata/
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Historical Cedars Preservation Metadata Elements : Cedars Project Document AIW02
Day, Michael; Stone, Andy (Date Created: 25 Feb 1999) (United Kingdom)
This document builds upon the work carried out for Cedars Project Document AIW01 Metadata for preservation (Day 1998). That report identified and outlined a number of metadata initiatives and projects with relevance to digital preservation. This document combines metadata elements taken from some of these initiatives and places them in the framework of the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) published by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (1998). This is a first attempt at identifying preservation metadata elements for the Cedars project within the general framework provided by the OAIS model.
http://ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cedars/papers/aiw02/
CONSER Cataloguing Manual Module 31: Remote Access Computer File Serials
Beck, Melissa (Last Updated: 03 Dec 2004) (United States of America)
This module covers cataloguing of computer file serials which are accessed remotely by computer; computer file expertise required to record essential bibliographic information; areas where the cataloguing is similar and where it differs from that of print serials; and CONSER cataloguing guidelines for online versions of printed serials. This is the version in the CONSER Cataloguing Manual 2004.
http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/Module31.pdf
Historical Creating and Using Virtual Reality : a Guide for the Arts and Humanities
Fernie, Kate (editor); Richards, Julian D. (editor) (Date Created: 2002)
This AHDS guide to good practice includes sections on archiving virtual reality projects and resources discovery. It includes information on metadata, formats, access and documentation of Virtual Reality projects. The Guide concentrates on accessible desk-top virtual reality which may be distributed and viewed on-line via the World Wide Web. It is concerned with the variety of virtual reality models that may be produced and how to ensure that these can be delivered successfully to users and preserved for future reuse.
http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/guides/vr_guide/
Data Dictionary - Technical Metadata for Still Images ANSI/NISO Z39.87-2006
National International Standards Organisation (NISO) (Date Created: 18 Nov 2006) (United States of America)
NISO Standard Z39.87 defines a set of metadata elements for raster digital images. The dictionary facilitates interoperability between systems, services and software. See also the related work by the Library of Congress Metadata for Images in XML Schema (MIX)
http://www.niso.org/kst/reports/standards/kfile_download?id%3Austring%
3Aiso-8859-1=Z39-87-2006.pdf&pt=RkGKiXzW643YeUaYUqZ1BFwDhIG4-24RJbcZBW
g8uE4vWdpZsJDs4RjLz0t90_d5_ymGsj_IKVa86hjP37r_hExj8UR8r_jBdk_ZQaQIo5DP
bfamndQa6zkS6rLL3oIr
Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata : Final Report of the PREMIS Working Group
PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) Working Group (Date Created: May 2005) (United States of America)
In 2003, the OCLC and RLG established the PREMIS Working group of which this is the final 237 page report. The report explains and contextualises the data dictionary which is a set of core preservation metadata applicable to digital preservation. Included in the report are the data model, the PREMIS Data Dictionary version 1.0 and examples for describing various media.
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-final.pdf
Historical Diffuse: Guide to Archiving
IST Diffuse; TIEKE (Last Updated: May 2002)
A data archiving guide developed within the Diffuse project (3 year project funded from 1 Feb 2000) of the EU IST program. Discussed are the major requirements to be considered, links to key standards, specfications, best practice examples and white papers appropriate for public record archiving.
http://web.archive.org/web/20031205165553/http:/www.diffuse.org/archiv
e_guide.html
Historical DIG35 Specification on Metadata for Digital Images
Digital Imaging Group (Date Created: Mar 2000)
'This specification defines a set of public metadata for digital still images, either as a single image or a collection of images, that could be supported and exchanged by current and future devices, software, and services in an open environment. In addition to the metadata definition, a recommendation for implementation is defined to enable exchange of such metadata.' Hardcopies of Ver. 1. and Ver. 1.1 can be ordered from International Imaging Industry Association (I3A).
http://www.i3a.org/technologies/metadata/
Ver. 1.0 Sept 2000 can be downloaded in PDF from this web site. (http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/TDWG/acc/Documents/DIG35-v1.0-Sept00.pdf)
Digital Lifecycles And File Types : Final Report
Bates, Melanie; Loddington, Steve; Manuel, Sue; Oppenheim, Charles (Date Created: May 2006)
As part of the JISC funded Rights And Rewards In Blended Institutional Repositories Project, this report provides an overview of characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of various types of image and text file formats. It also includes information about managing the lifecycle of a digital item as well as standards and specifications concerning metadata (e.g. Dublin Core and METS). It discusses issues to consider when packaging content (e.g. for loading into a learning management system) and provides an overview of various content packaging tools. It concludes with an introduction to reference models and frameworks used to describe processes managed by repositories and the systems in which they operate.
http://hdl.handle.net/2134/1793
Digital Preservation Guidance Note 1 : Selecting File Formats for Long-Term Preservation. Issue 2.
Brown, Adrian (Date Created: Aug 2008) (United Kingdom)
This guidance note issued by The National Archives (TNA) Digital Preservation Department sets out a range of criteria t to help data creators and archivists make informed choices about file format issues and selecting file formats for use.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/selecting-file-formats.pd
f
DPGN-01 Available in PDF and RTF version from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/preservation/advice/digital.htm
Historical Digital Preservation Guidance Note 1: Selecting File Formats for Long-Term Preservation
Brown, Adrian (Date Created: 19 Jun 2003) (United Kingdom)
Produced by the Digital Preservation Department of the National Archives (UK) as part of its series of guidance notes on issues relating to the preservation of electronic records, this document focuses on the selection of file formats for long-term preservation. It describes various criteria that need to be considered when dealing with file format issues and selection. Superseded by Version 2 August 2008.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/selecting_file_formats.pd
f
This document is the first in a series of guidance notes developed by the Digital Preservation Department, National Archives, UK. It is also available as an RTF document.
Digital Record Export Standard. ADRI Submission Information Package (ASIP). Ver. 1.0, 31 July 2007
Australian Digital Records Initiative (Date Created: 31 Jul 2007) (Australia; New Zealand)
This standard prescribes the physical representation of electronic records that are to be transferred to an archive. It specifies mandatory and optional metadata transferred with each record or file and the way the record (metadata and content) is physically represented as an XML document.
http://www.adri.gov.au/products/ADRI-2007-01-v1-0.pdf
Available from
DRIVER Guidelines 2.0 : Guidelines for Content Providers - Exposing Textual Resources with OAI-PMH
Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for Europe (DRIVER) (Date Created: 13 Nov 2008)
These guidelines which become effective 15 March 2009 have been written for repository managers and administrators on how to expose digital scientific resources using OAI-PMH and Dublin Core Metadata, creating interoperability by homogenising the repository output for use within the DRIVER ( Digital Repository Infrastructure Vision for Europe) infrastructure.
http://www.driver-support.eu/documents/DRIVER_Guidelines_v2_Final_2008
-11-13.pdf
Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices Version 2.1.1
CDP Metadata Working Group (Date Created: Sep 2006) (United States of America)
This document provides guidelines for creating metadata records for digitised cultural heritage resources including born digital and reformatted materials using the Dublin Core element set.
http://www.bcr.org/cdp/best/dublin-core-bp.pdf
e-Government Metadata Standard. Version 3.1
e-Government Unit, Cabinet Office (Date Created: 29 Aug 2006) (United Kingdom)
The e-GMS is an overall standard for the UK public sector designed to assist interoperability. It sets out the elements, refinements and encoding schemes to be used in creating metadata for government resources and designing search interfaces for information systems.
http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/documents/eGMS%20version%203_1.pdf
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Historical Edinburgh University Library Digital Archives Research Project: A Report and Recommendations
Semple, Najla (Date Created: 29 May 2002) (United Kingdom)
This is the final report from a project initiated by the Special Collections Department of Edinburgh University Library. The project aimed to act as a focus for raising digital preservation issues across the whole university. This report presents guidelines and recommendations for the preservation of digital information in the University environment.
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/sites/digpres/dpreport.pdf
Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections : 3rd Edition 2007
NISO Framework Working Group (Date Created: Dec 2007) (United States of America)
The framework has three purposes - an overview of major components and activities; identification of existing resources and encouraging community participation in ongoing development in good digital collection building. The document provides criteria for "goodness" around four entities: collections; objects (digital materials); metadata and initiatives. This third edition recognises born digital as well as digitised material.
http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/framework3.pdf
Available in pdf
Historical Guidance on the Structure, Content, and Application of Metadata Records for Digital Resources and Collections - Draft
IFLA Cataloguing Section Working Group on the Use of Metadata Schemas (Date Created: 23 Oct 2003)
This IFLA draft was developed in relation to the growing use and interest in metadata schemas. The report has three main objectives – “to create an inventory of the development and application of metadata schemas in different countries”; “to provide guidance to libraries as to when and/or how best to use metadata records and bibliographic records” and “to determine a metadata ‘core record’ – ie a set of most commonly occurring elements in selected metadata schemas”. A select bibliography of metadata resources has also been included.
http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s13/guide/metaguide03.htm
Guidelines for using PREMIS with METS
PREMIS Maintenance Activity (Last Updated: 25 Jun 2008) (United States of America)
This document is intended as a guide for using the PREMIS schema(s) as METS extensions for exchange purposes. It provides a brief background to the PREMIS and METS schemas as well as guidelines.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/guidelines-premismets.pdf
How to Deposit Digital Data
Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) (Last Updated: 2001) (United Kingdom)
This web page provides links to guidelines for deposit of digital material with service providers for the UK Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), including advice on appropriate documentation and methods.
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/depositing/how-to-deposit.htm
Introduction To Metadata : Pathways To Digital Information : Setting The Stage
Anne J. Gilliland (Last Updated: Sep 2008)
This section of the guide (Introduction Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information ed. by Murtha Baca)) provides a comprehensive introduction to metadata. It begins with a discussion of the ways that libraries, museums and archives have used metadata. It provides a table of different types of metadata and applications (e.g. for searching and administration). It poses a lifecycle for digital objects and describes how various types of metadata are used at different stages. It also gives a detailed list of reasons for using metadata (such as increasing accessibility and satisfying legal requirements).
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/intrometad
ata/setting.html
Online edition version 3.0 published Sept 2008.
Metadata For Your Digital Resource
Arts and Humanities Data Service (Date Created: 8 Jun 2004) (United Kingdom)
The guide places the role of metadata within the broader context of project documentation and recordkeeping. Metadata is viewed as a type of document that enables resources to be discovered, understood and shared. The guide provides an overview of various metadata standards and a discussion of why standards are important. It also highlights the importance of metadata being fit for purpose. It must meet the particular characteristics of the resources within the collection.
http://ahds.ac.uk/creating/information-papers/metadata/index.htm
Metadata Standards Framework - Preservation Metadata
National Library of New Zealand (Date Created: Nov 2002) (New Zealand)
The National Library of New Zealand has developed this preservation metadata schema to help support the preservation of digital objects by the library. It will help form the basis for the design of a metadata repository and associated input systems. The schema will help to identify digital objects for which preservation responsibility has been assumed, will store information about decisions and actions undertaken, will document information about preservation processes and record their effects and will help ensure their authenticity. The schema also includes those elements needed to manage the metadata record itself. The schema has been developed in the light of wider preservation metadata activities, including the draft schemas produced by the National Library of Australia and the UK Cedars project, the work of the OCLC/RLG Preservation Metadata Working Group and the development of the OAIS Model. Appendices compare the NLNZ schema with the OCLC/RLG framework, the NISO Z39.87 draft standard and the NLA's draft schema.
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/files/4initiatives_metaschema.pdf
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Metadata Standards Framework: Preservation Metadata (revised)
National Library of New Zealand (Date Created: Jun 2003) (New Zealand)
This is the revised version of the preservation metadata schema developed by the National Library of New Zealand and originally released for peer review in November 2002. This version, released in June 2003, will form the basis for the design of a database repository and input system for collecting and storing preservation metadata. It incorporates data elements needed to manage the metadata in addition to metadata relating ot the digital object itself. The document is intended to serve as an implementation template while at the same time remaining consistent with international standards. The schema has been developed in the light of international research into preservation activities, including the work of the National Library of Australia, the UK Cedars project, the OCLC/RLG Preservation Metadata Working Group and the OAIS reference model. Appendices compare the NLNZ schema with the OCLC/RLG/OAIS framework, the NISO Z39.87 standard and the NLA's draft schema.
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/files/4initiatives_metaschema_revised.pdf
METS Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard: Primer and Reference Manual. Version 1.6
METS Editorial Board (Date Created: Sep 2007) (United States of America)
This reference manual (128 p.) describes METS, the background and how it can be used. It includes detailed chapters on authoring a METS document, elements of the schema, common constructs and standards, METS profiles and external schema and controlled vocabulary.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/METS%20Documentation%20final%2007093
0%20msw.pdf
Historical NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard
State Records Authority of New South Wales (Date Created: Jun 2001) (Australia)
State Records NSW Metadata Standard for use by New South Wales public offices. The associated technical specifications are also included. NB: Part 1 of the standard was superceded in 2008 by [Standard No. 10]Standard on Digital Recordkeeping.
ISBN: 0731353781
http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/41519/20060420-0000/www.records.nsw.gov.
au/publicsector/erk/metadata/metadata-std/NRKMStitle.html
Standard No. 5
OCLC Digital Archive System Guides: Digital Archive Metadata Elements
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc (Last Updated: 2003)
This document (44 p.) provides an explanation of the metadata elements of the OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre) Digital Archive. Each element is explained and an example of usage given. The OCLC Digital Archive offers long-term preservation for 'born digital' materials.
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/pdf/da_metadata_elements.pdf
PREMIS Requirement Statement Project Report
Clifton, Gerard; Langley, Somaya; Lee, Bronwyn (Date Created: Jul 2006)
This is the report of the Presta-Premis Requirement Statement Project which was conducted from December 2005 to June 2006. It was undertaken by the National Library of Australia for the Australian Partnership on Sustainable Repositories (APSR). The report specifies requirements for the collection metadata needed for long tem continuity of access to digital collections. The report includes recommendations on preservation metadata elements including mandatory elements; recommendations on tools for automatic metadata extraction; a recommended list of supported formats and a draft METS profile for exchanging preservation metadata and functional specifications and use cases for preservation events and event logging. The report concludes with a summary of 14 recommendations.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/presta.pdf
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Preservation Metadata : Metadata Standards Framework : Metadata Implementation Schema : NLNZ Preservation Metadata
National Library of New Zealand (Date Created: Jul 2003) (New Zealand)
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/files/nlnz_data_model.pdf
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Historical Preservation Metadata and the OAIS Information Model: A Metadata Framework to Support the Preservation of Digital Objects
OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata (Date Created: Jun 2002) (United States of America)
The final report and recommendations from the joint OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata. The framework aims to meet the requirements of the OAIS reference model for Content Information and Preservation Description Information and draws on the metadata recommendations of CEDARS, OCLC, NEDLIB and the National Library of Australia, with refinements by Working Group members. This document supersedes Preservation Metadata and the OAIS Information Model : Part I : a Recommendation for Content Information.
http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/pm_framework.pdf
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Historical Preserving and Sharing Statistical Material
Royal Statistical Society; UK Data Archive (Date Created: 2002) (United Kingdom)
This booklet is aimed at promoting the preservation and sharing of electronic data. it also discusses what should be preserved and includes the RSS Code of Best Practice on the Preservation and Sharing of Statistical Material.
ISBN: 0-906805-02-3
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/publications/PreservingSharing.pdf
QA Focus Briefing Documents : Metadata
UK Office for Library and Information Networking (United Kingdom)
The site provides a series of overviews on a range of metadata topics. These include an introduction to metadata, how to deploy metadata, how to choose a metadata standard, metadata for subject searching, quality assurance for metadata, and an introduction to folksonomies.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/#metadata
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Historical Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies (Version 1.0)
National Archives of Australia (Date Created: May 1999) (Australia)
"This standard describes the metadata that the National Archives of Australia recommends should be captured in the recordkeeping systems used by Commonwealth government agencies. Compliance with the Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies will help agencies to identify, authenticate, describe and manage their electronic records in a systematic and consistent way to meet business, accountability and archival requirements." This document was superceded in July 2008 with the publication of Version 2.0 "Australian Government Recordkeeping Metadata Standard".
ISBN: 0 642 34407 8
http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/publications/rkms.aspx
PDF available for download from this website
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Safeguarding Australia's web resources: guidelines for creators and publishers
National Library of Australia (Date Created: Dec 2000) (Australia)
"The guidelines provide advice on creating, describing, naming and managing web resources to facilitate their ongoing use. The practices that are recommended will make it easier to carry out future preservation actions, which may be necessary in the longer term to maintain continued access to important resources."
http://www.nla.gov.au/guidelines/webresources.html
Sound Directions : Best Practices for Audio Preservation
(Date Created: 2008) (United States of America)
This publication presents results of the Sound Directions project which was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S.). It provides preservation overviews for collection managers and curators and recommended technical practices for preservation of audio.
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/papersPresent/ind
ex.shtml
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Standard for the Management of Electronic Records in the Victorian Government (PROS 99/007) VERSION 1
Public Records Office, Victoria In: Victorian Electronic Records Strategy Final Report (Date Created: Apr 2000) (Australia)
A Standard prepared as part of the recommendations of the VERS (Victorian Electronic Records Strategy) looking at long-term access of electronic information. The Standard has three specifications: System requirements for archiving electronic records, a Metadata scheme and a Standard electronic record format.
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/standard/version1.htm
textMD Technical Metadata for Text
Library of Congress (Date Created: Oct 2007) (United States of America)
This XML schema has been maintained by the Library of Congress since October 2007. TextMD was originally created by the New York University Digital Library Team. It is endorsed by METS and commonly used as an extension schema with METS adminstrative metadata section but also can be used alone or in the future with PREMIS. The schema is focused on documenting technical metadata for text based objects including OCR files.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/textMD/
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Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) : Version 2
Public Record Office Victoria (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
This web site has links to the standard "Management of Electronic Records", its supporting specifications and the explanatory advices, which were revised in July 2003. The five supporting specifications include system requirements for preserving electronic records, metadata, standard electronic record format, long term preservation formats and export of electronic records to PROV (Public Record Office Victoria). Specification 4 was updated to include PDF/A,JPEG, JPEG-2000, MPEG-4 in Aug 2006 and Specification 5 was updated for the PROV's new digital Archive.
http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/standard/version2.htm
Historical Working with the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER): Standards and Guidelines to Build a National Resource
Grout, Catherine; Ingram, Caroline (Date Created: Feb 2001) (United Kingdom)
A set of guidelines compiled by the DNER providing examples of best practices and accompanying standards for the development, delivery, management and preservation of online digital resources for learning and teaching.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=projman_standards

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Projects and Case Studies

Historical BIBLINK
European Commission (Last Updated: 24 Sep 1998)
Project BIBLINK, funded through the European Commission's Telematics Applications Programme, aimed to establish a relationship between national bibliographic agencies and publishers of electronic material, in order to establish authoritative bibliographic information for the benefit of both sectors. Areas of investigation have included: metadata, permanent naming, data transmission and authenticity. The project finished in February 2000.
http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/biblink/
Developing a Trusted Digital Repository: the OCLC Experience
Lawson, Dawn; Spies, Phyllis B (Date Created: Jan 2004) (United States of America)
This article focuses on the OCLC’s (Online Computer Library Centre) experience in developing a digital archive. The development of standards for digital archiving and preservation metadata with RLG (Research Libraries Group) in defining the main attributes of a trust digital repository is described, as are the main tools and functions of the archive including the harvest, ingest and dissemination of archived objects. The Connecticut State Library’s use of OCLC’s Web archiving tools is also discussed.
http://ninetta.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03055720410530960
Also available in PDF version and in VINE, Vol 34, No 1, 2004, pp. 27-32, ISSN 0305-5278 (Special Issue: Digital Preservation and Libraries. Part One).
Digital Lifecycles And File Types : Final Report
Bates, Melanie; Loddington, Steve; Manuel, Sue; Oppenheim, Charles (Date Created: May 2006)
As part of the JISC funded Rights And Rewards In Blended Institutional Repositories Project, this report provides an overview of characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of various types of image and text file formats. It also includes information about managing the lifecycle of a digital item as well as standards and specifications concerning metadata (e.g. Dublin Core and METS). It discusses issues to consider when packaging content (e.g. for loading into a learning management system) and provides an overview of various content packaging tools. It concludes with an introduction to reference models and frameworks used to describe processes managed by repositories and the systems in which they operate.
http://hdl.handle.net/2134/1793
Historical DONOR
National Library of Netherlands (Netherlands)
The DONOR project ran from May 1998 to May 2000. Its aim was to create an enabling infrastructure for information management and retrieval on SURFnet, the national research network of the Netherlands and to provide a coordinated approach to document and metadata management on the Web, with areas of investigation including persistent identifiers and metadata. The project website provides project details and reports as well as links to related projects and resources.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060820225114/donor.kb.nl/
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Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR)
Harvard University Library (Regularly Updated)
In development since 2002, the GDFR (Global Digital Format Registry) is an ongoing international initiative. The GDFR working group comprises national and academic research libraries and archives. The GDFR was developed as a mechanism to provide trustworthy, sustainable and authoratitive information about data formats. This website also has information on data and service models, use cases and the GDFR mission statement. In April 2009 GDFR joined with PRONOM to form the Unified Digital Formats Registry (UDFR). The UDFR will support the requirements and use cases compiled for GDFR and will be seeded with PRONOM's software and formats database.
http://hul.harvard.edu/gdfr/
JHOVE2 : a Next-Generation Architecture for Format-Aware Digital Object Preservation Formatting
Harvard University Library (Last Updated: 01 Jun 2006) (United States of America)
The paper discusses the scope of the JHOVE2 (JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment) project proposal. This project will seek to retain existing JHOVE functionality and refactor the existing architecture, support enhancements, increase the range of supported formats, and develop modules for supporting key preservation processes. Input from the JHOVE user community will be sought as part of the design phase. The proposal was submitted by Harvard University, Portico, and Stanford University to the Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) initiative.
http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/JHOVE2-proposal.doc
Historical Making of America II
(Last Updated: 26 Jan 1999) Has papers: Making of America II Testbed Project White Paper Version 2.0
This was a Digital Library Federation project to continue and extend research and demonstration projects that have begun to develop best practices for the encoding of intellectual, structural, and administrative data about primary resources housed in research libraries.
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MOA2/
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Historical Metadata Approach to Preservation of Digital Resources: The University of North Texas Libraries' Experience
Cathy Nelson Hartman; Daniel Gelaw Alemneh; Samantha Kelly Hastings (Date Created: Aug 2002) (United States of America)
(Publisher abstract:) "Preserving long-term access to digital information resources is one of the key challenges facing libraries and information centers today. The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries has entered into partnership agreements with federal and state agencies to ensure permanent storage and public access to a variety of government information sources. As digital resource preservation encompasses a wide variety of interrelated activities, the UNT Libraries are taking a phased approach to ensure the long-term access to its digital resources. Formulation of preservation policy and creation of preservation metadata for electronic files and digital collections are among the most important steps. This paper discusses the issues related to digital resources preservation and demonstrates the role of preservation metadata in facilitating the preservation activities in general. In particular, it describes the efforts being made by the UNT libraries to ensure the long-term access and preservation of various digital information resources."
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view
/981/902
Historical Metadata Engine Project (METAe)
University of Innsbruck, Austria (Date Created: 1999)
A group of 14 partners, the Metadata Engine Project was funded by the European Union IST Programme. The principal objective was the development of software able to extract as much metadata as possible from the layout of a book and to transform it into XML structured text. In addition, METAe generates Dublin Core metadata and the digital facsimile of the document. The project ran from 2000 to September 2003.
http://meta-e.uibk.ac.at/
mod_oai
Old Dominion University (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
Mod-oai is a joint project of the Old Dominion University Digital Library Research Group, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and is funded by the Mellon Foundation. The aim of the project is to make the content from Apache Web servers accessible via the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Web servers and Web crawlers would be able to selectively harvest from data repositories, for instance data gathering could be limited to files of a certain mimetype. The website provides an overview of the project including links to relevant organisations and describes members of the project team.
http://www.modoai.org/
Object Reuse and Exchange (ORE)
Open Archives Initiative (Date Created: Oct 2006)
This two year project began in October 2006. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the purpose of this project is to increase the interoperabiltiy between distributed scholarly repositories by using OAI-ORE to build on the OAI-PMH model to develop and test specifications for core interfaces that support locating, identifying, harvesting and depositing digital objects. A Primer, User Guides and Specifications are available.
http://www.openarchives.org/ore/
OCLC/RLG Preservation Metadata Working Group
OCLC (Last Updated: 05 Mar 2003) (United States of America)
A joint OCLC/RLG led initiative with international involvement, the Preservation Metadata Working Group was active in 2001-2002 with the intention to create a comprehensive metadata framework for digital preservation applications and recommend principles for best practice.
http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/wg1.shtm
PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) Working Group
OCLC (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
The focus of the PREMIS group will be on the practical aspects of implementing preservation metadata in digital preservation systems. It will use the metadata framework produced in 2002 by the first OCLC/RLG Preservation Metadata Working Group as a conceptual foundation and starting point for its work.
http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/
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Historical Project RoMEO
Project RoMEO,Department of Information Science, Loughborough University (Last Updated: 2003) (United Kingdom)
The RoMEO Project (Rights MEtadata for Open archiving) was funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee for one year (1 August 2002 - 31 July 2003) to investigate the rights issues surrounding the 'self-archiving' of research in the UK academic community under the Open Archive Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The Project's aims included the development of a set of interoperable rights elements using existing schemas, stakeholder surveys to ascertain rights issues unique to research self-archived under OAI and the development of guidelines on how the metadata elements may be used by authors and how they appear to the end user.
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ls/disresearch/romeo/index.html
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Recordkeeping Metadata Project
Records Continuum Research Group, Monash University (Last Updated: 24 Apr 1999) (Australia)
The Recordkeeping Metadata Project "aims to comprehensively specify and codify recordkeeping metadata in ways that enable it to be fully understood and deployed both within and beyond the records and archives profession." This project website provides links to resources developed in the course of the project, including the Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema (RKMS).
http://www.sims.monash.edu/research/rcrg/research/spirt/index.html

Top

Bibliographies

Controlled Vocabularies : Thesaurus Sites
Middleton, Michael
This site provides an extensive list of sources of terminologies. Terminologies or thesauri provide keywords for describing resources.
http://www.imresources.fit.qut.edu.au/vocab/
Controlling Your Language : Links To Metadata Vocabularies
JISC Digital Media (Regularly Updated) (United Kingdom)
This section of the JISC Digital Media website (formerly TASI) lists subject terminologies. Terminologies or controlled vocabularies provide keywords for describing resources. The site also discusses differences between a thesaurus, a classification system and an authority list. Many types of terminologies are hyperlinked. Some provide descriptors for a particular subject (e.g. architecture) while others are general.
http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/crossmedia/advice/controlling-your-l
anguage-links-to-metadata-vocabularies/
Metadata Resources Guide
Information Management Branch, Information Management, Access and Privacy, Alberta Government Services (Last Updated: May 2004) (Canada)
This Guide was developed to assist in the development of metadata standards for the Government of Alberta. The Guide covers major metadata resources and is organised by subject, including international initiatives, background information, preservation metadata, current awareness resources, standards, major metadata schemas and listservs. Most of the entries are annotated.
http://www.im.gov.ab.ca/publications/pdf/MetadataResGuide.pdf

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Surveys

Safekept
Implementing Preservation Repositories for Digital Materials : Current Practice and Emerging Trends in the Cultural Heritage Community : a Report by the PREMIS Working Group
OCLC/RLG PREMIS Working Group (Date Created: Sep 2004)
PREMIS, an international working group jointly sponsored by OCLC and RLG, reports the findings of a survey focused on current implementations and preservation metadata management practices of digital preservation repositories. The survey was conducted between December 2003 and February 2004 and drew respondents from 48 libraries, archives and other institutions from Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The survey covered repository services, models and policies, as well as architecture, storage, preservation processes and metadata. The report summarises and analyses the range of responses and notes a number of trends emerging in practice.
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/surveyreport.pdf
Implementing the PREMIS Data Dictionary : A Survey of Approaches
Woodyard-Robinson, Deborah (Date Created: 04 Jun 2007) (United States of America)
This report was prepared for the PREMIS Maintenance Activity at the Library of Congress. It explores how institutions have implemented PREMIS semantic units in order to aid revision of the PREMIS Data Dictionary(PDD). Sixteen repositories were surveyed and the results analyzed to identify which PDD semantic units are most relevant to specific types of repositories.
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/implementation-report-woodyard.pdf
Safekept
NEDLIB Local Situations
Borbinha, Jose Luis; Cardoso, Fernando; National Library of Portugal (Date Created: Jul 2000)
This report outlines the nature and regulation of digital publications (physical format and online) for each of the NEDLIB partner institutions. This includes information on the legal framework, cataloging practices, infrastructure, workflows, specific digital preservation approaches and other allied initiatives.
http://nedlib.kb.nl/results/local_situations_v2.htm

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Tools

National Library of New Zealand Metadata Extraction Tool
National Library of New Zealand (Last Updated: 2007) (New Zealand)
As part of its development of a Metadata Standards Framework, the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) has commissioned a software tool to extract preservation metadata from a range of file formats and to output the metadata to XML for use in digital repositories. Using Java and XML, the tool comprises a generic application and a number of adaptors for metadata extraction from specific file formats. Adaptors are currently available for MS Word 2, MS Word 6, Word Perfect, Open Office, MS Works, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, TIFF, JPEG, WAV, MP3, HTML, PDF,GIF, and BMP. Version 3.3 open source software released in 2007
http://meta-extractor.sourceforge.net/
OLAC : Open Language Archives Community Suite
Open Language Archives Community (Regularly Updated)
Open Language Archives Community OLAC-Suite harvesting tools to support OLAC repositories. "OLAC is creating a worldwide virtual library of language resources by developing consensus on best current practice for the digital archiving of language resources, and developing a network of interoperating repositories and services."
http://sourceforge.net/projects/olac
Safekept
Xena : Open Source Digital Preservation Software from the National Archives of Australia
National Archives of Australia (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
Purpose : XENA (XML Electronic Normalising of Archives) tool, converts a range of file formats to XML representations for long term access. Released as open source software, the application uses a 'plug-in' architecture to convert a range of formats to XML packages. Supported formats include MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint, OpenOffice formats, Rich Text Format, several email formats, comma separated files, relational databases, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PNG and BMP, HTML and Web sites, and plain text.
Documentation : XENA 4.2.1 is available for download at sourceforge (12 Jan 2009).
http://xena.sourceforge.net/

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Related Topics: Persistent identifiers | Standards

Broader Topic: Data documentation & standards

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