EOSC EDEN Core Preservation Processes (CPPs)
Members of EOSC EDEN T1.2 Core Preservation Process writing team: Micky Lindlar (WP1 Lead), Bertrand Caron (T1.2 Lead), Juha Lehtonen (Technical Coordinator), Maria Benauer, Johan Kylander, Kris Dekeyser, Matthew Addis, Mattias Levlin, Mikko Laukkanen, Felix Burger, Tiina Koho, Franziska Schwab, Laura Molloy, Fen Zhang
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The first questions when starting in digital preservation are often “What needs to be done?” and “How can I get started?” Many guidance documents, frameworks or standards address digital preservation from various angles. Standards like the “Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System” (OAIS, ISO14721) or certification frameworks like “CoreTrustSeal” offer insight into digital preservation concepts and requirements from an organisational point of view. The “NDSA Levels of Preservation” or the “Core Requirements for a Digital Preservation System” from the DPC Procurement Toolkit provide checklists to assess the maturity of systems. Registries like COPTR (the Community-Owned Digital Preservation Tool Registry) help with finding tools for specific tasks. But how should these processes be implemented? And what do they look like in detail?
Until recently, such a point of reference was missing. Our contribution, the Core Preservation Processes (CPPs) are a set of 30 processes that every digital archive should undertake - either directly or through an associated party or service - in order to fulfill its preservation mission. Identified and described within the EOSC EDEN project, the CPPs aim to provide practical implementation guidance for digital preservation processes and workflows.
We designate them “core” preservation processes because their scope covers operational activities specific to digital preservation, the core of EOSC EDEN’s contribution. As such, the CPPs do not cover strategic/managerial digital preservation activities (like staffing) nor the whole list of activities of a generic information management system, including secure IT infrastructures. Digital preservation practitioners working Task 1.2 of the EOSC EDEN project wrote the CPPs to address the widest possible digital preservation audience. They come out of a thorough comparison of widely used digital preservation frameworks, including the DPC Procurement Toolkit, the CoreTrustSeal requirements, the NDSA Levels of Preservation and ISO16363 (Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories).
The CPPs are available in form of three resources:
(1) EOSC EDEN M1.1 - Report on Identification of Core Preservation Processes (Zenodo publication: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16992451 )
This 363-page-long publication consists of the 30 CPP description documents as well as a Report on the Methodology, a CPP Template to allow for extensibility of the CPPs, and a Glossary that describes the conceptual model, the relationship taxonomy, as well as policies and other terms used throughout the CPP description documents.
This resource is ideal for those who wish to inform themselves about the CPP genesis, learn more about shared concepts and policies across the CPPs or have a concrete process in mind they would like to read up on. The record will be versioned as the CPPs are extended through the community.
(2) EOSC EDEN WP1 CPP Descriptions (github repository: https://github.com/EOSC-EDEN/wp1-cpp-descriptions )
In addition to the Zenodo publication, the CPPs have been published on a github repository. The CPPs are intended to be a living resource, which should be updated with new reference implementations and use cases. A discussion forum was added to the github repo to enable community interaction. In addition, new work on the CPPs, such as an alternative XML representation of the textual descriptions, can be followed and commented on.
This resource is ideal for those who wish to join the discussion or contribute to the CPPs. From here, new versions will be pushed to Zenodo.
(3) EOSC EDEN WP1 CPP Visualisation Tool (hosted version: https://cpp.fd-dev.csc.fi/ , github repository: https://github.com/EOSC-EDEN/wp1-cpp-visualization)
Where the publication offers a linear entry into the CPPs, the visualisation tool shows how the CPPs are connected to each other. It is a visual representation of the relationship model described in the glossary and instantiated in every core preservation process description. Users can drill down to individual CPPs and explore procedural or logical relationships as well as dependencies.
This resource is ideal for those who wish to explore workflows that connect different processes or learn how a CPP fits into the larger digital preservation picture.
The list of CPPs covers the following processes:
● CPP-001 Checksum Generation and Recording
● CPP-002 Checksum Validation
● CPP-003 Integrity Checking
● CPP-004 Data Corruption Management
● CPP-005 Identifier Management
● CPP-006 AIP Batch Export
● CPP-007 Virus Scanning
● CPP-008 File Format Identification
● CPP-009 Metadata Extraction
● CPP-010 File Format Validation
● CPP-011 Replication
● CPP-012 Risk Mitigation
● CPP-013 Object Management Reporting
● CPP-014 File Migration
● CPP-015 Emulation and Rendering Tools
● CPP-016 Metadata Ingest and Management
● CPP-017 Disposal
● CPP-018 Community Watch
● CPP-019 Data Quality Assessment
● CPP-020 Rights Management
● CPP-021 AIP Versioning
● CPP-022 Significant Properties Definition
● CPP-023 Risk Definition and Extraction
● CPP-024 Enabling_Discovery
● CPP-025 Enabling Access
● CPP-026 File Normalisation
● CPP-027 File Repair
● CPP-028 Creation of Derivatives
● CPP-029 Ingest
● CPP-030 Refreshment
The 30 CPP description documents share a strict structure. The “Description” section includes Inputs and Outputs, Definition and Scope, Rationale and Worst Case Scenarios as well as actual process description for each CPP. The process description includes a list of events that induce the process (trigger events) as well as a step-by-step description in a procedural and practical hands-on manner. The step-by-step description follows the SIPOC (supplier, input, process, output, customer) logic.
The “Dependencies and relationships with other CPPs” section describes dependencies and relations (logical and procedural) using a stringent taxonomy, which is described in the accompanying CPP glossary publication.
In the “Links to frameworks” section, the CPPs are mapped to CoreTrustSeal, nestor Seal and ISO 16363 sections. This enables readers to see where their own process documentation can be used in certification processes. Additionally, the CPPs have been mapped to OAIS and PREMIS
Lastly, the “Reference Implementations” section contains links to use cases and publicly available documentation for implementations of the CPP. Within the scope of the project, these references are limited to links provided by project institutions. Through github a mechanism has been introduced to allow the wider community to add new use cases and links to reference implementations.
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