Preservation Objectives

A Preservation Objective is defined as a specific achievable aim which can be carried out using the Information Object.

It is used to help to judge whether an Information Object is understandable, i.e. has enough Representation Information.

There may be several Preservation Objectives for any single piece of Information.

OAIS further states that:

Long Term Preservation is defined as the act of maintaining information, Independently Understandable by a Designated Community, and with evidence supporting its Authenticity, over the Long Term.

To be Independently Understandable the information must be sufficiently complete to allow it to be understood by the Designated Community, as exemplified by the associated Preservation Objectives, without having to resort to special resources not widely available, including named individuals.

Preservation Objectives are intended to allow the repository to make it possible to test whether the information actually is Independently Understandable by members of the Designated Community now and into the future, in particular having adequate Representation Information. In order to facilitate this each Preservation Objective should be:

• Specific—The objective should be well defined and clear to anyone with the assumed Knowledge Base.

• Actionable—The objective should be achievable currently and into the future.

• Measurable—It should be possible to know whether or not the objective has been attained at a given point in time.

Examples of Preservation Objectives include:

• The ability to render documents, images, videos or sounds in a way which is sufficiently similar to the original. This could be checked by verifying that, for example, the document is readable or the image is viewable. An analysis of the colors could also be compared. A spectral analysis could be performed on the sounds and compared with that of the original.

• The ability to process a dataset and generate the data products expected. This could be checked by comparing with something generated earlier, for example on Ingest.

• The ability to understand a dataset and use it in analysis tools to generate results, for example the density of electrons in the upper atmosphere or the structure of a molecule, given certain measurements. These could be compared with results generated earlier.

• The ability to re-perform an artistic performance. This could be compared with a recording of a previous performance.

Checks on the success of the preservation activity should include confirmation that these aims have been fulfilled. Clearly information needed to make comparisons, as in the examples above, would be expected to be created earlier, perhaps on Ingest, and would need to accompany the information being preserved.

An OAIS must define Preservation Objectives. The definition of the Preservation Objectives may be subject to agreement with funders and other stakeholders. They will likely provide input into those definitions and may have agreements with the OAIS regarding those definitions. The definition of the Designated Community and its Knowledge Base will probably change over time and therefore the definition of the Preservation Objectives may change over time. In this case, funders and other stakeholders would again be consulted.