3.2 EXAMPLE MECHANISMS FOR DISCHARGING RESPONSIBILITIES: Difference between revisions

From wiki.dpconline.org
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Created page with "This subsection provides example mechanisms for discharging the responsibilities of 3.1. Not all of these mechanisms will be applicable to all OAISes. 3.2.1 NEGOTIATES FOR AND...")
 
mNo edit summary
Line 1: Line 1:
This subsection provides example mechanisms for discharging the responsibilities of 3.1. Not all of these mechanisms will be applicable to all OAISes.
This subsection provides example mechanisms for discharging the responsibilities of 3.1. Not all of these mechanisms will be applicable to all OAISes.
3.2.1 NEGOTIATES FOR AND ACCEPTS INFORMATION
 
 
== 3.2.1 NEGOTIATES FOR AND ACCEPTS INFORMATION ==
 


An organization operating an OAIS should have established some criteria that aid in determining the types of information that it is willing to, or it is required to, accept. These criteria may include, among others, subject matter, information source, degree of uniqueness or originality, and the nature of the techniques used to represent the information (e.g., physical media, digital media, format). The information may, in general, be submitted using a wide variety of common and not-so-common forms, such as books, documents, maps, data sets, and physical objects using a variety of communication paths including networks, mail, and special delivery.
An organization operating an OAIS should have established some criteria that aid in determining the types of information that it is willing to, or it is required to, accept. These criteria may include, among others, subject matter, information source, degree of uniqueness or originality, and the nature of the techniques used to represent the information (e.g., physical media, digital media, format). The information may, in general, be submitted using a wide variety of common and not-so-common forms, such as books, documents, maps, data sets, and physical objects using a variety of communication paths including networks, mail, and special delivery.

Revision as of 12:34, 12 August 2015

This subsection provides example mechanisms for discharging the responsibilities of 3.1. Not all of these mechanisms will be applicable to all OAISes.


3.2.1 NEGOTIATES FOR AND ACCEPTS INFORMATION

An organization operating an OAIS should have established some criteria that aid in determining the types of information that it is willing to, or it is required to, accept. These criteria may include, among others, subject matter, information source, degree of uniqueness or originality, and the nature of the techniques used to represent the information (e.g., physical media, digital media, format). The information may, in general, be submitted using a wide variety of common and not-so-common forms, such as books, documents, maps, data sets, and physical objects using a variety of communication paths including networks, mail, and special delivery.

The OAIS should negotiate with the Producer to ensure it acquires appropriate Content Information and associated PDI for its mission and the Designated Community. Considerable iteration may be required to agree on the right information to be submitted, and to get it into forms acceptable to the OAIS. For example, this may include digitizing audio or video material, or scanning text.

Negotiation can embrace a range of possible actions, and may sometimes be a null step. It may be carried out for each SIP, for each Producer, or for a class of Producers. It may involve extensive human contact or machine-machine negotiations, such as that which takes place between a web crawler and a web server when deciding what, if any, content the server will permit the crawler to have (the former acting as a Producer, the latter as an OAIS).

The OAIS should extract, or otherwise obtain, sufficient Descriptive Information to assist the Designated Community in finding the Content Information of interest. It also should ensure that the information meets all OAIS internal standards.

3.2.2 OBTAINS SUFFICIENT CONTROL FOR PRESERVATION

It is important for the OAIS to recognize the separation that can exist between physical ownership or possession of Content Information and ownership of intellectual property rights in this information. If it has created the information and is the legal owner of the Content Information, the OAIS already has the independence to do what is required to preserve the information and make it available. When acquiring the Content Information from any other producer or entity, the OAIS should ensure that there is a legally valid transfer agreement that either transfers intellectual property rights to the OAIS, or clearly specifies the rights granted to the OAIS and any limitations imposed by the rightsholder(s). The OAIS should ensure that its subsequent actions to preserve the information and make it available conform with these rights and limitations. When the OAIS does not acquire the intellectual property rights, the agreement should specify what involvement the rightsholder(s) will have in preservation, management or release of the information. In most cases, it will be preferable for the OAIS to negotiate an agreement that specifies the rightsholder(s) requirements and authorizes the OAIS to act in accordance with those requirements without active involvement of the rightsholder(s) in individual cases.

The OAIS must assume sufficient control over the Content Information and Preservation Description Information so that it is able to preserve it for the Long Term. There is no issue with the AIP’s Packaging Information because, by definition, this is under internal OAIS control. The problems of assuming sufficient control of the Content Information and Preservation Description Information, when they are largely digital, are addressed in three related categories, as follows:

– copyright implications, intellectual property and other legal restrictions on use;

– authority to modify Representation Information;

– agreements with external organizations.

Copyright implications, intellectual property and other legal restrictions on use: An Archive will honor all applicable legal restrictions. These issues occur when the OAIS acts as a custodian. An OAIS should understand the intellectual property rights concepts, such as copyrights and any other applicable laws prior to accepting copyrighted materials into the OAIS. It can establish guidelines for ingestion of information and rules for dissemination and duplication of the information when necessary. It is beyond the scope of this document to provide details of national and international copyright laws.

Authority to modify Content Information: Although the Fixity Information within the Preservation Description Information of an AIP ensures that the Content Information-related bits have not been altered, there will come a time when Content Information bits are not in a form that is convenient for the Consumers from the Designated Community. The Content Information bits may be fully documented in available hardcopy forms, so technically the information has not been lost, but practically the information has become inaccessible. The OAIS needs the authority to migrate the Content Information to new representation forms. If it is acting as a custodian, it may need to seek additional permission to make such changes. If the information is copyrighted, the OAIS should already have negotiated permission to make the changes needed to meet preservation objectives. It may employ subject matter experts, from outside the OAIS, to help ensure that information is not lost. Ideally, when this situation arises, both the original AIPs (fully described) and new AIPs will be retained. Digital Migration issues are addressed more fully in 5.1

Agreements with external organizations: An OAIS may establish a variety of agreements with other organizations to assist in its preservation objectives. For example, it may establish an agreement with another OAIS so that it does not have to preserve all the common Representation Information objects related to its Content Information objects. Agreements with other organizations should be monitored to be sure they are being followed and remain useful.


3.2.3 DETERMINES DESIGNATED COMMUNITY

The submission, or planned submission, of Content Information and associated PDI requires a determination as to who the expected Consumers, or Designated Community, of this information will be. This is necessary in order to determine if the information, as represented, will be understandable to that community. For example, an Archive may decide that certain Content Information should be understandable to the general public and, therefore, this becomes the Designated Community.

For some scientific information, the Designated Community of Consumers might be described as those with a first year graduate level education in a related scientific discipline. This is a more difficult case as it is less clear what degree of specialized scientific terminology might actually be acceptable. The Producers of such specialized information are often familiar with a narrowly recognized set of terminology, so it is especially critical to clearly define the Designated Community for their information and to make the effort to ensure that this community can understand the information.

The possible changes to the definition of the Designated Community also need consideration. Information originally intended for a narrowly defined community may need to be made more widely understandable at some future date. For example, information originally intended to be understandable to a particular scientific community may need to be made understandable to the general public. This is likely to mean adding explanations in support of the Representation Information and the Preservation Description Information, and it can become increasingly difficult to obtain this information over time. Selecting a broader definition of the Designated Community (e.g., general public) when the information is first proposed for Long Term Preservation can reduce this concern and also improve the likelihood that the information will be understandable to all in the original community.


3.2.4 ENSURES INFORMATION IS INDEPENDENTLY UNDERSTANDABLE

The degree to which Content Information and its associated PDI conveys information to a Designated Community is, in general, quite subjective. Nevertheless, it is essential that an Archive make this determination in order to maximize information preservation. Digital Content Information and PDI need adequate Representation Information to be Independently Understandable to the Designated Community. Typically there are multiple Representation Information objects involved, and this is discussed in 4.2.

For example, consider Content Information from a digital set of observations of rainfall, temperature, pressure, wind velocities, and other parameters measured all over the world for a year. This type of information is very extensive and is not usually in a form intended for direct human browsing or reading; but it is in a form appropriate to searching and manipulation by application software. Such content may only be understandable to the original Producers, unless there is adequate documentation of the meaning of the various fields and their inter-relationships, and how the values relate back to the original instrumentation that made the observations. In such specialized fields extra effort is needed to ensure that the Content Information and the Preservation Description Information are understandable to a Designated Community. If the Archive does not have this level of expertise in-house, it may have outside community representatives review the information for Long Term understandability. Otherwise some of the information may be understandable to only a few specialists and be lost when they are no longer available.

Even when a set of information has been determined to be understandable to a particular Designated Community, over time the Knowledge Base of this community may evolve to the point that important aspects of the information may no longer be readily understandable. At this point it may be necessary for the OAIS to enhance the associated Representation Information so that it is again readily understandable to the Designated Community.

As another example, a manuscript’s Content Information may be written in English and therefore its content may be generally understandable to a wide audience. However, unless the purpose for which it was created is clearly documented, much of its meaning may be lost. This ‘purpose’ information is part of its Context and must be provided in the Preservation Description Information.

Software is needed for efficient access to Digital Content Information. However, maintaining Content Information-specific software over the Long Term has not yet been proven cost effective because of the narrow application of such software. The danger of information loss is great when such software is relied upon for information preservation and understanding because it may cease to function under only small changes to the hardware and software environment. This may not be recognized unless there is a vigorous, ongoing, testing and validation program. A related approach is to employ an emulator that maintains a consistent environment for a range of application specific software. A major concern with this approach is the need to upgrade and maintain the emulator over time while ensuring it runs all the application specific software with fidelity, and to do this cost-effectively.

3.2.5 FOLLOWS ESTABLISHED PRESERVATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

It is essential for an OAIS to have documented policies and procedures for preserving its AIPs, and it should follow those procedures. In particular AIPs should never be deleted unless allowed as part of an approved policy; there should be no ad-hoc deletions. The appropriate policies and procedures will depend, at minimum, on the nature of the AIPs and any ‘backup’ relationships the Archive may have with other Archives. For example, migrations that alter any Content Information or PDI will need to be carefully monitored and the appropriate PDI fully updated. This attention to detail, while also ensuring against processing errors, requires that strong policies and procedures be in place and that they be executed.

The Producer and Consumer communities should be provided with submission and dissemination standards, policies, and procedures to support the preservation objectives of the OAIS.

The Designated Community should be monitored to be sure the Content Information is still understandable to them. The Designated Community may lose its familiarity with some terminology, and the definition of the community may be broadened to include other members with different backgrounds. For example, a periodic review with participants representing the Designated Community could assist in this process.

A Long Term technology usage plan, updated as technology evolves, is essential to avoid being caught with very costly system maintenance, emergency system replacements, and costly data representation transformations.

The Archive should have a formal Succession Plan, contingency plans, and/or escrow arrangements in place in case the Archive ceases to operate or the governing or funding institution substantially changes its scope.


3.2.6 MAKES THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE

By definition, an OAIS makes the Content Information in its AIPs visible and available to its Designated Communities. Multiple views of its holdings, supported by various search aids that may cut across collections of AIPs, may be provided. Some AIPs may only exist as the output of algorithms operating on other AIPs. They appear as DIPs that, upon dissemination, should include documentation on how they were derived from other AIPs. The expectations of OAIS Consumers regarding access services will vary widely among Archives and over time as technology evolves. Pressures for more effective access should be balanced with the requirements for preservation under the available resource constraints.

Some AIPs may have restricted access and therefore may only be disseminated to Consumers who meet access restrictions. The OAIS should have published policies on access and restrictions so that the rights of all parties are protected.

In general, DIPs may be distributed by all varieties of communication paths, including networks and physical media. --Please retain original text above for reference. Comment or propose amendments or additions below this line--