# /programs/ourwork/past/premis.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/premis.htm

# PREMIS—Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies Objective: To develop and recommend best practices for implementing preservation metadata. Overview: This project has been a joint effort of RLG and the library consortium OCLC. Preservation metadata is information that supports digital preservation processes. A key component of archival systems, metadata helps to ensure that digital materials remain usable over the long term. Following publication of the PREMIS Working Group's preservation metadata dictionary, a maintenancy activity was launched for that guide and supporting XML implementation schemas, hosted by the Library of Congress. Work is underway to develop a maintenance agency, to fund inter-institutional PREMIS operability testing, and to apply the results to revisions of the data dictionary and XML schemas. PREMIS Maintenance Activity Web site: Includes a listserv open to members of the PREMIS implementor community. PREMIS Web site: The primary site for the PREMIS working group and its products. In 2005 PREMIS working group won the prestigious UK Digital Preservation Award. At the ceremony held at the British Library, award judges stated they "were impressed by the work PREMIS has done in compiling a 'data dictionary' identifying core digital preservation metadata, which they have supported with practical examples and a software protocol. A key factor in the decision was the international scope of PREMIS, and the consensus building and collaboration that is so crucial in so many digital preservation issues."