Digital preservation of geoscience information is important to ensure continued access to valuable scientific data over long periods of time. The Viking Mars mission from 1975 illustrates this need, as the original magnetic tape data degraded and became unreadable after 20 years. Proper digital preservation strategies like the Open Archival Information System model help ensure long-term access through migration to new formats, technology emulation, and institutional repositories. The presentation outlines the OAIS model and its key elements, and proposes implementing a pilot institutional repository in India to test an OAIS-compliant preservation approach for geoscience data.

1. Digital Preservation
of
Geoscience Information
Smita Chandra
Librarian

2. 2

3. Importance of Digital Information
Preservation
 1975 – Two Viking space probes sent to Mars by USA.
 Data generated by unrepeatable mission cost $1 billion.
 Recorded data on magnetic tapes was corrupted /
unidentifiable after 2 decades despite being kept in
climate controlled environment.
 Scientists could not access data, unable to decode the
formats used.
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4. Importance of Digital Information
Preservation
 Original format developers not alive.
 Finally old printouts tracked and retyped.
 NASA therefore is the biggest supporter of Digital
Preservation Projects.
 This illustrates wide gap in information generation and its
management.
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5. Outline of Presentation
 Digital information: forms and types
 Geoscience information
 Institutional Repositories (IR)
 Digital Preservation (DP); strategies for
DP
 OAIS model & its implementation
 Indian scenario
 Research proposal & expected results
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6. Digital Information
 Information in digital form
 Born Digital
 Converted from Analog
 Types of Digital Information
 Electronic Publications
 Organizational and Personal Records
 Data
 Learning Objects like articles, books
 Software Tools
 Unpublished Materials
 Electronic Manuscripts
 Entertainment Products
 Images (Digitally designed or digitized)
 Websites
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7. Threats
 Media decay and failure
 Massive storage failures, outdated media
 Access Component
 Obsolescence
 Outdated formats, applications & systems
 Human and Software errors &
 External Events
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8. Information Deluge
Present & Future Projections
Yawning gap between
 Our ability to create digital information
 Our infrastructure and capacity to manage and
preserve it over time
 Cumulative effect foreseen as future “digital dark
ages”
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9. Need for Digital Preservation
 preserving natural/cultural heritages
 for promoting academic research
 enabling public access to legacy
collections
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10. Geoscience Information
 Encompasses complex human-natural system
 Storehouse of massive heterogeneous data sets, and a wide variety of
content and data types which reflect the features of various research
fields of study
 Every content holder aim at the needs of their particular community
and work independently with a loose collaboration and integration
 Every content holder has their respective digital archive system with
individual data structure, management policy and search interface,
however, there is an inability to transform and integrate data with each
other transparently
 Enabling and improving the interoperability for heterogeneous
collections is important
Source : Loudon, T.V. Geoscience after IT : Part A & Part B. Computers & Geosciences, 2000, 26(3A),
26(3A),
A1-13.
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11. Institutional Repositories (1)
Definition :
 An institute-based repository is a set of
services that an academic institution
offers to the members of its community
for the management and dissemination
of digital materials created by the
institution and its community members.
Source: Clifford A. Lynch (February 2003), “Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for
Scholarship in the Digital Age” ARL Bimonthly Report 226: 1-7. http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html
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12. Institutional Repositories (2)
Main Objectives
 to create global visibility for an institution's
scholarly research;
 to collect content at a single location;
 to provide open access to institutional research
output by self-archiving it;
 to store and preserve other institutional digital
assets, including unpublished or otherwise easily
lost ("grey") literature (e.g., theses or technical
reports).
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13. Institutional Repositories (3)
IR Softwares
 DSpace (dspace.mit.edu)
 Eprints.org
Subject Specific IRs
 arXiv (www.arXiv.org)
 RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)
(www.repec.org)
 CogPrints (www.cogprints.org)
 NASA Technical Report Server (ntrs.nasa.gov)
 Networked Computer Science Technical Reference
Library (www.ncstrl.org) 13

14. Institutional Repositories (4)
 An IR is a model for a preservation system
 It requires “most essentially an organizational commitment to the
stewardship of … digital materials, including long-term
preservation where appropriate, as well as organization and
access or distribution”
 Attributes of a “Trusted Digital Repository”
“…an organisation that has responsibility for the long-term
maintenance of digital resources, as well as making them
available [through time and across changing
technologies] to communities agreed on by the depositor
and the repository .”
Research Libraries Group
http://www.rlg.org/longterm/attributes01.pdf 14

15. Definition: Digital Preservation
The maintenance of digital materials over the long-term
with a view to ensuring its continued accessibility. It
ensures that the digital resources are stored correctly
and maintained adequately in the online world, such
that they are available consistently for use over time.
“Long-term” includes timescales of decades or even centuries
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16. Preservation Strategies
 Technology preservation
 Keep the hardware alive
 Technology emulation
 Create an environment to be able to run the
existing software
 Data migration
 Convert data to new formats to run in new
applications
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17. Open Archival Information
System (OAIS)
SIP = Submission Information
Package
AIP = Archive In formation
Package
DIP = Dissemination Information
Package
 Published by Consultative Committee for Space Data System
(CCSDS) 2002, ISO 14721 : 2003 standard
 An archive consists of an organization of people and systems
with responsibility to preserve information and make it available
to users.
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18. OAIS: Definitions
 To define an Open Archival Information System
 The term 'open' means that the document was developed in
an open way, and does not imply that access to any OAIS
should be unrestricted
 An archive is defined as an "organization that intends to
preserve information for access and use by a designated
community." (p. 1-8)
 While an OAIS itself need not be permanent, the information
being maintained has been deemed to need "Long Term
Preservation"
 Long term = long enough for there to be a concern about the
impact of changing technologies
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19. OAIS: Purpose and Scope
 Primary focus on digital information
 Specific aims include:
A framework for the understanding and awareness of the
archival concepts needed for long term preservation (access)
 Terminology and concepts for describing and comparing:
 Architectures and operations
 Preservation strategies and techniques
 Data models
 Consensus on elements and processes for long term
preservation
 A foundation for other standards
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20. OAIS: Applicability
 Applicability:
Applicable to any archive, but mainly focused on
organisations with responsibility for making
information available for the long term
Of interest to those who create information
 Conformance
An OAIS must support the information model - but
does not specify any particular method of
implementation
Mandatory responsibilities (section 3.1)
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21. Implementing OAIS (1)
 Summing up the fundamentals :
 OAIS is a reference model (conceptual framework), NOT a
blueprint for system design
 It informs the design of system architectures, the development
of systems and components
 It provides common definitions of terms, a common language
and means of making comparison
 But it does NOT ensure consistency or interoperability between
implementations
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22. Implementing OAIS (2)
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23. Implementing OAIS (3)
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24. Implementing OAIS (4)
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25. Summing Up : OAIS
 The OAIS model is a foundation stone for
current and future digital preservation efforts
 Itis already widely used to inform the
development of preservation tools and
repositories
 Itcould be used in the future as a basis for
conformance
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26. Indian Scenario (1)
 Open Digital Repository
 Indian Institute of Science (http://etd.ncsi.ernet.in)
 National Chemical Laboratory (http://dspace.ncl.res.in/dspace/index.jsp)
 Indian Statistical Institute (http://library.isibang.ac.in:8080/dspace/index/jsp)
 Social Science Data
 The Census of India
 M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation
 Museums and Art Galleries
 Ministry of Culture, GOI
 The National Archives
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27. Indian Scenario (2)
Institute Resource
Central Water Commission Command area maps
National Bureau of Soil Survey and Soil maps and land use data
Soil Maps
Survey of India (SOI) Topographical maps, geodetic trigonometric
and levelling data, gravity & geomagnetic data,
GPS data, tidal data, repetitive geodetic &
geophysical data
Geological Survey of India (GSI) Geological maps on various scales, geological
and seismic data
National Remote Sensing Agency Satellite imageries, land use and wasteland
(NRSA) maps on different scales
Indian Meteorological Department Meteorological and seismic data
(IMD)
Ministry of Ocean Development Oceanic data 27
(MOD)

28. Proposal for IRs in India
1. Providing adequate financial and technical resources for ensuring
“digital preservation” in IRs
2. National Informatics Center (NIC) entrusted with framing guidelines
and policy
or establishing a new agency
For handling digital preservation, for collaboration, sharing and
avoiding duplication
3. Trusted Digital Repository for accurate and reliable information
4. Legally sustainable digital preservation policy
5. Joining the Digital Preservation Consortium
6. Attention to collection management of digital material in libraries
7. Amendment of the Delivery of Books Act and Press and Registration
Act to cover the digital material
8. Training of manpower for the management and preservation of
electronic records
9. Research in the area of digital preservation
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29. Research Objectives
 Testing a pilot IR in a stand alone mode
 Implement an OAIS-compliant layer to the IR
drawing upon best practices
 To develop a preservation strategy and a
custom made model addressing issues like
planning and policy for preservation, the role of
different players in the process, IPR and
copyright, etc
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30. Research Methodology
Digitization Process
Digital Materials
Converted
Analog Materials
Born
Material Selection
Process
Institutional
Digital Preservation
Repository
Long Term Short Term
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31. Expected Results
 Thisresearch would identify all the
components necessary for the
implementation of the OAIS model for a
geoscience domain specific institutional
repository
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32. 32

33. Annexure 1
Preservation Description
Information
Provenence
Context
Reference
Fixity
Content Data Object Representation
Information
Physical Object Digital Object
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34. Annexure 2
 OAIS Mandatory Responsibilities:
 Negotiating and accepting information
 Obtaining sufficient control of the information
to ensure long-term preservation
 Determining the "designated community"
 Ensuring that information is "independently
understandable"
 Following documented policies and
procedures
 Making the preserved information available
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35. Annexure 3
35