Building A Repository for Digital Objects

Allen Mullen

Texas State Library & Archives Commission

Overview Considerations for Developing a

Permanent Repository for Digital Objects

Texas State Library’s Electronic Publications Repository project

Background Publication Repositories vs. other

Digital Object projects Standards in use

Types of Digital Object projects Records management preservation Digital image access/preservation

projects Electronic journal

access/preservation projects

Government Publication Repositories National Library of Australia NEDLIB National Library of Canada GPO and U.S. States

Standards and models Open Archival Information

Systems (OAIS) Document Object Model Preservation metadata XML framework

OAIS NASA developed; proposed ISO

standard Framework for archive

architecture; establishes concepts and processes

Processes: Ingest, Data Management, Archival Storage, Access, and Administration

Data object interpreting Representation Information produces Information Object

Document Object Model W3C Recommendation for an

open standard to dynamically access and update documents

Potential for Preservation - work on basis of collections sharing common characteristics

XML Framework

The Platform and The Content must be “persistent” for preservation

Collection context - “infrastructure independent” platform for data exchange

Presentation context - XML based objects for platform independent migration

Preservation Metadata Standards

National Library of Australia, CEDARS, NEDLIB and Library of Congress

facets - descriptive, access, administrative, technical, legal

OCLC/RLG work

Other considerations Migration or emulation? Authenticity Version control persistent locator

Texas Government Information Repository Background Key considerations Key decisions Project progress

Repository Background Migration of Government

Publishing TRAIL and Dublin Core Print Publication Depository

system

Key Considerations What to collect? How to collect? How to process? How to store? How to preserve? How to access?

Challenges of Publication Framework Multiple formats for publications Multiple files comprising single

publications Multiple versions of publications Relative vs. Dynamic linking Difficult formats

Key Decisions Collection Development Policy Manual harvest Collections-based processing;

conversion to XHTML (or other XML)

Archives and redundant depository Migration or emulation? Enhanced Dublin Core

Project progress Research phase completed RFIs issued and evaluated Integration of digital images

projects Purchasing/implementation in

Autumn 2001 Integration via Z39.50 Future work to be done