Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive have a written plan which spells out and justifies its assumptions and practices? Does the archive have a mission statement? This defines collection parameters, and annual work plans. Is the plan acceptable to the archive sponsor, resource allocator, data creator, certifying board? Is there a plan for staging ingestion of data into archive? This defines the at-risk components. Is there a concept of operations plan for the archive? Has a legal authority been defined for the archive to justify retention of data? Do you have a governing board for the archive?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Has the archive validated its procedures and capabilities against this implementation standards checklist? Have the legal authority requirements been met? Does the archive comply with relevant “NARA / ISO” standards that have become available? DOD standard for ingesting office records ISO PDTR draft records management standard ISO legal imaging standard or best practices from DLM forum Is there a validation plan or audit process that reconfirms the archive compliance over time? Are updated versions of the checklist used, that include current best practices?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Is the nature of the interaction of the archive staff with data providers defined? How does the archive help the provider understand the data and meta-data standards to which the provider must/should conform? Are guidelines and requirements for preparation and submission of data provided? How does the archive support the providers in the data preparation? Is training and outreach provided? Are required protocols for data ingestion specified? Is the accession process for scheduling data access defined?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Can the data ingestion process handle the expected data transfer in a manner acceptable to the provider? Does the data ingestion process scale to handle the expected growth in the data flow? Does the data ingestion process support the accepted practices of the provider? What types of data ingestion can be supported (formats, data rates)? Are the ingestion mechanisms appropriate for the planned data ingestion schedule? Is electronic data transfer supported? Are expectations set for the sustainable data transfer rates?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive have approaches to insure that the accessioning process maintains the fidelity of the original data? Are mechanisms provided to track fidelity of data? Can integrity of data be monitored through checksums, and are the checksum algorithms documented? Are data flows tracked to identify sources of error? Are content validation mechanisms provided to check the data as received, and after delivery to a user?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Are adequate environmental and security controls provided for the archive? ANSI recommended practices for environmental controls Temperature, humidity, dust,... Computer room controls (36 CFR 188) Security access controls Physical security IT security (viruses) Backup and disaster recovery Physical location of archive (faults, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires)

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive have (and follow) processes to migrate data across media? Are mechanisms provided to check fidelity of information over the life of the archive? Are annual checks of readability done (36 CFR 1234)? Are certified media used (defined)? NARA standard, National Media Lab (nta.org or nml.org) Are mechanisms provided to monitor media viability (OAIS criteria)? Is automatic error checking done for media (SMART technology)? What are the maximum allowed error levels? Are best practices followed for archiving to tape? Are “stable” technologies used for media?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive have (and follow) processes to migrate data and meta-data across technologies? Do you have a test plan to validate your migration procedures that follows industry best practices? Are “stable” IT technologies used in archive generation, preservation and maintenance? Are documented formats used for data sets and meta- data? Is an information model used to characterize collections? Are access mechanisms provided that meet user “leading or cutting edge” expectations? Are you monitoring your user community access requirements?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive make its data and services known to its customer community? Is outreach information made available that is appropriate for the user community? Does the archive effectively publicize its services? Is the archive a member of the Society of American Archivists, or the Association of Archivists, or the International Council on Archives, or regional archive organizations? Do you solicit input from your user community to assess needs and future requirements?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive make its data and services effectively available to its customer community? Are access delivery mechanisms in synch with the expectations of the user community? Is cataloging information provided that is sufficient for locating data based on descriptive information? Does the archive provide unique identifiers for data sets that support tracking of information? Is cataloging information available to the customer community? Are mechanisms provided to track usage of the archive? Mechanisms for handling confidentiality requirements? Do you have mechanisms to handle copyright? Support for proprietary data access control?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Are the archive’s data correctly and independently usable by the designated community? Is there enough and adequate representational information provided for the data to be usable? Is the meta-data context correctly defined? Can the data be used without needing expert advice? Are mechanisms provided to collect this information from the data providers? Is the level of expertise defined for access to the data sets? Are data sets provided that correspond to the level of expertise of the user community?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Does the archive provide an infrastructure independent representation for the data and meta-data? Can the collection be migrated forward in time? Do you have an infrastructure independent representation for the database itself? Mechanisms for handling proprietary formats? Will conversion tools exist? Do you provide (archive) original software? Do you provide alternate representations or formats? Are the formats documented or published?

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Certification (Best Practices) Checklist Are mechanisms provided for life cycle maintenance? Is validation of data integrity done on a regular basis? Is the OAIS checklist followed on a regular basis? Is there a plan for regular migration of data? Is copyright permission format evolution tracked? Do you have permission to migrate to a new form? (Need to extend fair use and rights of preservation to digital materials.) Pre-ingest checklist is needed

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Best Practice Development Use ingest and identification workgroup criteria for checklist ID meta-data Cataloging (finding aids) Unique identifier within local collection, within archive community, … Check compliance of the certification/best practices list with the OAIS model and mandatory responsibilities section 3.

Archival Workshop on Ingest, Identification, and Certification Standards Best Practice Development What is the appropriate data set description? Correspondence to OAIS terminology Descriptive information –Dublin Core PDI - Reference, context, provenance, fixity Packaging information Representation information Structure Management - audit trails Preservation What is the information model for the structure of meta- data?