Using the Preservation Metadata Dictionary
So how do we use the PMD at Sound & Vision? The current version functions as a reference document for the gradual identification, standardization and implementation of preservation metadata in the actual workflow and systems. This function is expressed in a few concrete applications:
- We are currently using the PMD for a completeness check of the processual and technical metadata that will be logged into a new Media Asset Management system to be rolled out in 2016. The PMD serves as an overview of all metadata that may be involved in audio-visual preservation.
- We use the technical attributes in the PMD as a possible list of so-called significant properties and transformational migration properties. It is essential that these properties be identified, to be able to check after the event whether the most important properties of a digital object have remained intact following a migration, so that its authenticity can be demonstrated.
- Finally, it helps us engage with new types of collections, we can compare metadata standards for the preservation of games for instance, to our current practice and see what is missing.
The current version of the PMD is not a static document. Updates are made when important internal or external developments (e.g. coming from the developing archival practice, or from a new release of one of the international standards the dictionary is based on) require a change or an addition to the attributes.
PREMIS 3.0: a call to action
The call to action at the implementation fair was to come up with implementations of version 3.0 so that best practices can be formed. In getting acquainted with PREMIS 3.0, we realize that the most radical changes have to do with implementing emulation workflows. So far at Sound & Vision, we have been able to rigorously implement migration, due to the nature of our collections and the context into which we work. As we currently explore ways of preserving complex, born digital objects, such as games, PREMIS 3.0 offers us a datamodel to structurally rethink our preservation metadata.