PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS)

Metadata to support digital preservation

Introduction: In 2003, RLG and OCLC sponsored the creation of PREMIS: PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies. A working group developed a core set of implementable, preservation metadata. An updated second version, sponsored by the Library of Congress, was released in March 2008 after the retirement of the initial 30 members in 2005. Purpose and Goals: Metadata is a key component of archival systems and helps to ensure that digital materials remain usable over the long term. The PREMIS Data Model was created to facilitate the organization of the metadata elements. The five types of entities that are involved with digital preservation and make up the PREMIS Data Model are: intellectual entities, objects, events, rights, and agents. Preservation metadata generally includes different types of metadata: administrative, technical, and contextual. PREMIS stresses the importance of documentation of digital provenance and relationships among different objects within the preservation repository. PREMIS metadata contains a number of core elements which they define as: things that most working preservation repositories are likely to need to know in order to support digital preservation. It is a purposefully broad definition that allows flexibility in developing digital preservation strategies. Anatomy of the standard - the Data Dictionary: In 2003, the PREMIS working group designed a Data Dictionary, which is a comprehensive, practical resource for implementing preservation metadata in digital archiving systems. In May 2005, they released a 237-page resource guide which contains a core set of implementable preservation metadata, broadly applicable across a wide range of digital preservation contexts. It is supported by guidelines and recommendations for creation, management, and use. The Data Dictionary:

 Supports the viability, renderability, understandability, authenticity, and identity of digital objects in a preservation context Represents the information most preservation repositories need to know to preserve digital materials over the long-term Emphasizes implementable metadata: rigorously defined, supported by guidelines for creation, management, and use, and oriented toward automated workflows Embodies technical neutrality: no assumptions made about preservation technologies, strategies, metadata storage and management, etc. In addition to the Data Dictionary, the working group also published a set of XML schema to support implementation of the Data Dictionary in digital archiving systems. Authoritative Resources: The primary authoritative source for PREMIS is the Library of Congress. Comprehensive and up to date information about PREMIS is available on the web through the Library of Congress. For more information: PREMIS Data Dictionary: http://www.loc.gov/premis/v2/premis-2-0.pdf PREMIS Website: http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/ PREMIS Implementers Group discussion list: http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/pig.html OCLC also helped developed the standards for PREMIS and related info can be accessed on their site. This site is useful for understanding OCLCs role in developing the standard but will ultimately redirect you to the LOC page listed above. http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/past/orprojects/pmwg/default.htm