Richard Marciano Chien-Yi Hou Caryn Wojcik

University of University of State of Michigan

North Carolina North Carolina Records Management Services

SALT SALT

DCAPE PROJECT

NHPRC ISSUED A CALL…• Design a digital preservation service with a business model for the

archival community

• Fill the needs of archival repositories that cannot build and sustain their own electronic records archive

DCAPE PROJECT• Distributed Custodial Archival Preservation Environments

• Project funded by NHPRC in 2008 (RE10010-08)

• Officially started in December 2008

• Project ended March 2012

• http://www.dcape.org/

WHAT IS DISTRIBUTED CUSTODIAL PRESERVATION?• Physical custody of archival collections is distributed outside of the

archival repository (owner) to a trusted preservation service

• Owner retains legal custody

• Owner remains responsible for archival functions, including preservation and access

• Access to collections is controlled by owner

DCAPE PARTNERS• 28 people across 9 institutions and 2 staff at UNC, for a total of 32

participants

• Cultural Entity: Getty Research Institute

• Cyberinfrastructure: West Virginia University, Carleton University (Canada)

• State Archives: California, Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, New York

• State Library: North Carolina

• University Archives: Tufts

• UNC: School of Information and Library Science (SILS), Sustainable Archives and Leveraging Technologies (SALT)

DCAPE GOALS• Build a preservation environment that meets the needs of archival

repositories for trusted archival preservation services.

• Services are based on policies (rules) that are defined by the archivist

• Over 250 rules have been developed for the iRODS library that can be leveraged for DCAPE

• A series of rules might “look” like this:

• When files are ingested, replicate them in three different locations and run a checksum on each file. Bit-check files every month. Send an alert about any changes to the files.

DCAPE GOALS• The trusted digital repository infrastructure will be assembled

from state-of-the-art rule-based data management systems, commodity storage systems, and sustainable preservation services

• The software infrastructure will automate many of the administrative tasks associated with the management of archival repositories

• Tasks will include: authentication, replication, migration, obsolete file management, preservation metadata management, etc.

PROJECT TASKS• Execute service agreements between UNC and partners to govern

use of the test collections

• Define rules and services (organized according to the OAIS framework) for iRODS to perform on test collections

• Ingest test collections into iRODS and validate the rules and services

• Develop business model (including costs) for sustaining a repository service based on iRODS

• Develop model service agreements that define the standard and optional services of the repository

ROLE OF IRODS• Preservation environment provides rule-based automation of

archival functions (repeatable services)

• Standard and optional services will be available

• Shared service should reduce costs for each archival repository, compared to the cost of building in-house preservation capabilities

DCAPE BUSINESS MODEL• Non-profit

• Fees for services

• Fees for storage

• Storage and disaster prevention services

• Software maintenance

• Access and connectivity

DCAPE INTERFACE

DCAPE METADATA MODEL• Employ modified Dublin Core model

• Follow OAIS model

• Allow customization

• Encourage standardization

• Define

• Source: creator, system, archivist

• Level: collection, accretion, item

• Accessibility: internal vs. public

• Field Status: Required vs. optional

AUDIT TRAIL• Tracks activities and actions by users

• System generated metadata in the metadata model

• Supports authenticity of collections and records

• Documents preservation activities by archivists

• Essential function of a “trusted digital repository”

• iRODS can log the information at the system and user level

• Interface will allow views of the relevant audit trail data from various screens

• Data can be exported to PREMIS format, if necessary

DCAPE WORKFLOW• Define functionality at each stage• Virtual Loading Dock• Pre-accessioning• Ingestion

• Preservation Area• Archival storage• Data management• Administration• Preservation planning

• Reference Room• Access

• Common services• Management

• Each activity is mapped to the metadata model

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES• Identify user roles• Define duties of users assigned to that role• Roles• Governance Team• Director• System Administrator• Account Administrator• Archival Administrator• Accessioning Archivist• Processing Archivist• Reference Archivist• Archival Researcher

SECURITY AND PERMISSIONS• Define the actions that a user can perform

• Based upon their role

• Based upon the collections they have access to

• Linked to the user’s login

• Permissions

• Add/Create/Upload/Modify/View/Delete/Open/Close/Export/Replicate

• Security

• Groups/Users

• Collections/Records

www.dcape.org

MORE INFORMATION