originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/repositorycert.htm
Digital Repository CertificationObjective: This project helped to identify digital repositories capable of reliably storing, migrating, and providing access to digital collections. Overview: The project was the responsibility of a joint task force between RLG and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These experts were asked to define certification requirements, to delineate a process for certifications, and to identify a certifying body (or bodies) that can implement the process. Robin Dale, RLG's digital preservation expert, was the task force co-chair and project manager. In 2005 the task force published a draft checklist for certifying digital repositories. The task force invited community comment on this draft document. Its final version reflected this feedback plus additional work done in a related project organized by the Center for Research Libraries. The final report is available from the Center for Research Libraries: http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/16712 (pdf).ParticipantsBruce Ambacher, Co-Chair
RLG staff liaison: BackgroundThe challenge: Digital information is so complex and vast that no one institution—or even a hundred institutions—can be responsible for the preservation of the world's digital cultural heritage. In a world bound by a complex array of legal, ethical, cultural, and economic obligations, the imperative of long-term access to information further complicates the roles and responsibilities of digital repositories. These challenges plus others were documented by an influential North American report in 1996: Preserving Digital Information, from the Task Force on the Archiving of Digital Information. Since then, RLG, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and many other organizations have worked on a large array of projects to address the problems and barriers identified in this report. These efforts have helped to advance the digital archiving infrastructure called for in the report and have contributed to the development of national—and even international—digital repositories. A critical component of infrastructure is not yet in place. Effective digital archiving services require a shared understanding across stakeholders of what is to be done—and how—by known and trusted organizations. We need a process of digital repository certification in order to rely on a repository. A digital repository certification process should address the range of functions associated with repositories while providing layers of trust for all involved. It should yield a high degree of confidence that the information a repository disseminates is the same information that was ingested and preserved. And the certification process must also address the consequences of failure, including fail-safe mechanisms that would enable a certified archival repository to perform rescue of endangered digital information. The task force & its charge: RLG and NARA were the joint creators of this task force. This effort was based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model, and RLG and NARA intended the results to go into the standardization process via the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) Archiving Series. The Task Force on Digital Repository Certification was charged with the following:
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