Developing a trusted digital repository: the OCLC experience
| Pages | 27-32 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720410530960 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Author | Dawn Lawson,Phyllis B. Spies |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Developing a trusted
digital repository:
the OCLC experience
Dawn Lawson and
Phyllis B. Spies
The authors
Dawn Lawson is Digital Archive Product Manager, Digital
Content Management Services, OCLC Digital Collection &
Preservation Services and Phyllis B. Spies is Vice President,
OCLC Worldwide Library Services, both at OCLC Online
Computer Library Center, Inc., Dublin, Ohio, USA.
Keywords
Digital storage, Archives, Cataloguing
Abstract
Describes the background, design and working of a set of tools
to catalogue and ingest (import) objects into a digital archive.
The toolset had their origin in a collaboration between OCLC and
RLG to define the characteristics of a trusted digital repository.
The working of the tools is outlined. Their usage by the
Connecticut State Library is discussed.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0305-5728.htm
Introduction
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit,
membership, computer library service and
research organization dedicated to the public
purposes of furthering access to the world’s
information and reducing information costs. More
than 44,000 libraries in 86 countries use OCLC
services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, and
preserve library materials. OCLC and its member
libraries cooperatively produce and maintain
WorldCat – a globally networked, Web-based
information resource of text, graphics, sound and
motion. WorldCat contains not only descriptions
of library holdings, but links to digital objects in
repositories managed by libraries, museums,
archives, and historical societies.
The development of standards for digital
archiving and preservation metadata
In March 2000, OCLC and RLG initiated a
collaborative program with the objective of
defining the attributes of a trusted digital
repository. They convened an international
working group of digital preservation experts to
build on and incorporate into this task the then
emerging international standard, Reference Model
for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS;
ISO 14721:2002)[1]. The group issued a draft
report for comment in August 2001 and a final
report, Trusted Digital Repositories: Attributes and
Responsibilities, in May 2002[2]. Defining a trusted
digital repository as “one whose mission is to
provide reliable, long-term access to managed
digital resources to its designated community, now
and in the future”, the report outlines the group’s
consensus regarding the framework of attributes
and responsibilities required of such a repository.
Attributes listed in the report are compliance with
OAIS, administrative responsibility, organizational
viability, financial sustainability, technological and
procedural sustainability, system security, and
procedural accountability. The responsibilities
outlined are varied, including both those of a high-
level organizational nature and the curatorial.
Finally, the report makes seven recommendations
for next steps in this area. A task force convened by
RLG and NARA is currently addressing the first of
these, which calls for a process supporting the
certification of digital repositories[3].
Another international working group related to
digital repositories was also under way in 2000-
2002. After issuing a white paper, Preser vation
Metadata for Digital Objects: A Review of the State of
the Art, the OCLC/RLG Working Group on
Preservation Metadata published its final report in
VINE: The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems
Volume 34 · Number 1 · 2004· pp. 27-32
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720410530960
27
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