Repository policy

Everything a repository does, and what it stands for, must be guided by repository policy. This includes what data it intends to collect, and how that data will be managed today, tomorrow and in the future, in other words, preservation. The evidence for repository policy is patchy, but in two surveys the Preserv project has gone looking for the evidence and for the relationship between repository policy and preservation goals.

Survey The effect of open access mandates on repository preservation policy, March 2009
see also the earlier Survey of Repository Preservation Policy and Activity, February 2007
The aim of the survey was to inform the investigation of preservation services for repositories. Preservation service providers need to know the scale and shape of the task facing them, and this survey enables them to understand repositories and help to construct appropriate services.

For a short introduction to the importance of policy for digital preservation, see this presentation
Tutorial Policies for Institutional Repositories, including Preservation planning: connecting with policy (from slide 9), Repositories Support Project (RSP) Summer School, June 2007

Repository metadata

If we look at the reference model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS), that is, how a repository should view data management, one of the stages to consider is ingest of content into the repository. At this stage repositories typically add metadata describing the object, so that it might be retrieved. It might also add metadata to begin to record the origins and history of the digital object. This is known as preservation metadata.

Paper Preservation Metadata for Institutional Repositories: applying PREMIS, January 2007
Currently, the authoritive reference on preservation metadata is the PREMIS Data Dictionary (2005). This analysis attempts to map the five entity types identified in the PREMIS Data Dictionary -- intellectual entities, objects, events, agents and rights -- to potential metadata sources identified in an repository-preservation service provider model. The interim findings are that PREMIS appears to provide an excellent basis on which assess the needs of repositories with respect to preservation metadata, and it is possible to map the PREMIS elements to an extended model incorporating preservation services and registries. Preliminary evidence shows that most data can be provided by the sources identified, although some elements may need to be adapted or omitted.

For a practical introduction to preservation metadata and PREMIS, see the materials for this repository event
Tutorial Applying preservation metadata to repositories (slides), with an associated worksheet, Repositories Support Project, Professional Briefing, January 2008
Focussed on a practical exercise described in the worksheet, the workshop aimed to demystify preservation for managers of institutional repositories by linking 20 selected items from the PREMIS preservation metadata dictionary to activities that repositories perform today.