# Introduction It is best, if possible, to gather all the "metadata" as possible, and certainly that which will be required for creation of an Archival Information Package, from the start. However sometimes one has no option but to receive information with very little "metadata" and then do ones best to curate it. To help in this one can identify the various steps in the "lifefcycle" of information, from its initial stages of planning, to its creation/collection, and then preservation, described in [Information Lifecycles](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/information-lifecycles.md). The aim should be to make sure that the information can be made use of, or exploited, in many ways. At each step a checklist can help to ensure that nothing is forgotten, and a new standard "Information Preparation to Enable Long Term Usability", provides such a checklist and is illustrated in [Collecting Information needed for Re-Use and Preservation](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/collecting-information-needed-for-re-use-and-preservation.md). Having gathered that "metadata" it will be found that there is potentially much repetition, for example provenance will be inherited by everything that is subsequently created. Such repetition can be avoided by using the capabilities of LABDRIVE, as described in [Planning and Using Additional Information in LABDRIVE](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/planning-and-using-additional-information-in-labdrive.md). Over time various activities must be undertaken in order to preserve the various pieces of information. These activities are described in general terms in [Preservation Activities](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities.md). These are divided into * [Adding Representation Information](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/adding-representation-information.md): * [Semantic Representation Information](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/adding-representation-information/semantic-representation-information.md) * [Structural Representation Information](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/adding-representation-information/structural-representation-information.md) * [Other Representation Information](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/adding-representation-information/other-representation-information.md)which includes software, and its preservation in [Software as part of the RIN](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/adding-representation-information/other-representation-information/software-as-part-of-the-rin.md) * [Transforming the Digital Object](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/transforming-the-digital-object.md) * [Handing over to another archive](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/preservation-activities/handing-over-to-another-archive.md) [Reproducing research](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/reproducing-research.md)describes how work can be reproduced by bringing together the concepts of Representation Information and Provenance. Finally the topic of [Exploiting preserved information](/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/exploiting-preserved-information.md) is described, which is important in order to justify the resources for the preservation activities. ## Preserving the Metadata It is worth noting that pieces of "metadata" must themselves be preserved, since they will be needed for preservation of the objects which are usually the focus of preservation. For example any piece of Representation Information which is needed for a specific Data Object will be needed until that Data Object is Transformed during its preservation. For that piece of Representation Information one must have: * its own Representation Information to preserve it - and is part of the Representation Information Network (RIN) of the Data Object * provenance - in other words the archive must know where it came from * fixity - since the archive must be able be sure the Representation Information has not been changed * reference - since the archive must have an identifier for it * context - since the archive must know why it has that Representation Information * access rights - certainly the Representation Information cannot be changed,and in some cases it may only be accessed by specific people, for example for commercial or security reasons. In this way it can be seen that every piece of "metadata" effectively has all the elements required by an AIP and so, for convenience, the same structure and preservation activities may be used. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.libnova.com/labdrive/data-curation-and-preservation-1/introduction.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.