DIGITAL PRESERVATION PERSPECTIVES ARCHIVAL SCIENCE AND THE OPEN ARCHIVAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS MODEL Charles M. Dollar University of British Columbia

BACKGROUND Authentic Electronic Records: Strategies for Long-Term Access –Chapter 1: Conceptual Foundations –Chapter2: Options and Alternative for Long- Term Access to Authentic Electronic Records –Chapter 3:Best Practices, Recmmendations, and Guidelines –Chapter 4: Act Agenda –Six appendices Publisher: Cohassets Associates, Sept. 1998

TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED WHAT IS ARCHIVAL SCIENCE? APPLYING ARCHIVAL SCIENCE TO DIGITAL PRESERVATION ARCHIVAL SCIENCE AND THE OAIS

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW No single source of archival science Experience of France - four phases –Description and preservation of deeds/charters –Arrangement and description - respect de fonds –Shift from academic history research –Information technologies

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW North American perspectives Pragmatic tradition - reject “archival science” Two approaches to archival science

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Theodore J. Schellenberg –Very influential –Two books –Informational value of records Sir Hilary Jenkinson –Very influential –Book –Records as evidence

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Schellenberg model challenged Revival of interest in Jenkinson –Definition of record is very attractive –Diplomatics –Functional appraisal of records

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE TODAY “The concepts, principles, and methods governing the treatment of records. It includes the concepts, practices, and methods defined by diplomatics” - Luciana Duranti Creation, use, maintenance, selection for retention, and preservation of records as evidence

KEY DIPLOMATICS CONCEPTS Record Original Copy Reliability Authenticity

RECORD Media independence Completeness –Identification of the author –An act or intention to take a decision –A stable storage medium –Form - the constituent elements such as time and date of creation –Preserved

RECORD (2) recorded information created, received or maintained by an organization or a person in the transaction of business kept as evidence of this activity

ORIGINAL First in time Effective

COPY “Form of the original Imitative Simple

RELIABILITY Stand for facts “Authority and trustworthiness of records as proof and memory of their activity of which they constitute the natural by-product, that is, their ability to stand for the facts they are about” Terry Eastwood and Luciana Duranti

RELIABILITY (2) Information that can be depended upon By-product of routine actions Produced in accordance with standard procedures Linkage with like records Context of creation and use

AUTHENTICITY Retain reliability over time “Over time” –Transmission –Reproduction No change in content, context, or structure

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE AND DIGITAL PRESERVATION Ease of alteration or loss Fragility of storage media Technology obsolescence Ensure authentic electronic records over time

APPLYING ARCHIVAL SCIENCE TO DIGITAL PRESERVATION ARCHIVAL SCIENCE PRESERVATION DOMAIN LONG-TERM ACCESS STRATEY ROLE OF STANDARDS

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE PRESERVATION AND ACCESS DOMAIN Readable Records Intelligible Records Identifiable Records Retrievable Records Reconstructale Records Understandable Records

LONG-TERM ACCESS STRATEGY Maintaining Processable Electronic Records Migrating Processable Electronic Records

PROCESSABIITY Records can be read and correctly interpreted by current computer hardware/software and easily transferred to a new technology platform using an export/import software functionality.

REFORMAT Alteration in the underlying bit stream of records without any change in the structure, content, or context No special software is required

COPY Exact duplication of the bit stream underlying electronic records There is no change in the structure, content, or context General purpose software

CONVERT “Automatic” transfer of electronic records from one technology environment to another without the loss of structure, content, or context Underlying bit stream likely to change Source software application environment or new application environment

MIGRATION Transfer of electronic records that can only be read and correctly understood by using legacy hardware/software to a new technology platform. Typically, this involves the design of new gateways and writing special code.

MIGRATION STEPS Michael Brodie and Michael Stonebreaker, Migrating Legacy Systems: Gateways, Interfaces & the Incremental Approach (1995)

ROLE OF STANDARDS Non--proprietary standards with an established market place base The marketplace is the arbiter of standards that should be adopted Wary of the Universal Preservation Format

ARCHIVAL SCIENCE AND OAIS MODEL System perspective Long-term access Conceptual similarities –“Replicate” –“Repackage” –“Transmutation” “Recorded information”

COLLABORATION Explore archival definition of record vis-à- vis recorded information (database) Exploration of a “shared interest” in standards Separate discussion paper for workshop review