Packaging Information

This is the information that describes how the components of an Information Package are logically or physically bound together and how to identify and extract the components.

An information Package is quite a general object and the Packaging Information describes how the various components are arranged and how they can be extracted.

OAIS does not provide any details for the SIP or DIP.

On the other hand OAIS provides a great deal of requirements for the Archival Information Package (AIP), and so the bulk of the following is about the AIP.

Only the XFDU packaging format maps directly to the OAIS Archival Information Package.

An OAIS AIP may be as simple as a collection of pointers to the various components required by OAIS, namely

• Data Object

• Representation Information

• Provenance Information

• Fixity Information

• Reference Information

• Context Information

• Access Rights Information

The packaging Information would in such as case be definition of the way in which the pointers may be identified. For example the discussion of BAGIT shows how to identify and extract the various components of the AIP.

A ZIP or TAR or other general "box/holder" containing all the components in a flat structure could also be an AIP as long as it was accompanied by the instructions as to how to identify and extract the various required components, for example having such instructions in a simple text file.

On the other hand, despite the name, the E-ARK AIP specification does not seem to be compatible with the OAIS AIP because it does not seem possible to assign a place for the various required components, for example the Representation Information.