[Rdap] What makes an 'Archive Quality' Digital Object?

Peter Wittenburg Peter.Wittenburg at mpi.nl
Mon Apr 25 15:26:56 EDT 2011


Hallo Joe  - an answer from Europe.

There are by the way two procedures to assess quality: one is (T)RAC as you specify and the other is DSA (Data Seal of Approval). While the first is a heavy procedure, the second is a more lightweight process. We have chosen to go for DSA which seems to be appropriate for us storing also patrimonial data which needs to be preserved for the future.

With respect to metadata I think that it is the responsibility of the community to come up with an agreed set of elements. In our domain (languages) we are using CMDI (Component Metadata Infrastructure) allowing everyone to define his own components and profiles, but requesting everyone to use the elements and vocabularies registered in ISOcat which is based on the ISO 12620 standard. But this is just one example. I know that the climate researchers and astronomers use different element sets (of course). 
Here are a few references which are easy to read (Short Guides):
- http://www.isocat.org (concept registry)
- http://www.clarin.eu/external/index.php?page=publications&sub=3 (metadata & concept registry short guides)
- http://www.datasealofapproval.org/ 
- http://www.mpi.nl/tla (our unit)

best
Peter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rdap-bounces at asis.org [mailto:rdap-bounces at asis.org] On Behalf Of
> Joe Hourcle
> Sent: Friday, April 22, 2011 8:12 PM
> To: Research Data, Access and Preservation
> Subject: [Rdap] What makes an 'Archive Quality' Digital Object?
> 
> 
> 
> As part of the side discussion about defining what a dataset is, an issue got
> raised about what about a given object makes it of 'archive quality'?
> 
> 
> I know there's the TRAC checklist to look at what archives need to do, and
> I've seen various guidance on digitization of images, movies or audio on
> what resolution you should digitize at, and which formats you should use,
> and what metadata to attach.
> 
> ... but for people who are writing the various standards used for storing
> scientific data (eg, CDF, NetCDF, HDF, FITS, VOTable), are there any
> recommendations on what sort of features / documentation / metadata are
> necessary to be of 'archival' quality?  (either as part of the standard,
> or as metadata that needs to be in each object being tracked)
> 
> -Joe
> 
> -----
> Joe Hourcle
> Programmer/Analyst
> Solar Data Analysis Center
> Goddard Space Flight Center
> 
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