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PREMIS Editorial Committee releases study on rights information in the
PREMIS data dictionary

 

The Library of Congress' Network Development and MARC Standards Office
is pleased to announce the availability of a study written by Karen
Coyle on how rights information needed for digital preservation
activities is handled in the PREMIS data dictionary. 

 

The Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) Working
Group developed the Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata, which is
a specification containing a set of "core" preservation metadata
elements that has broad applicability within the digital preservation
community.  It constructed a data model that defined entities involved
in the preservation process and their relationships.  One of the
entities in this data model is rights statements, which specify terms
and conditions for using the objects in a preservation repository.  The
PREMIS Working Group chose to consider only rights required for
preservation activities in scope for its work, rather than rights for
access.  Because of the ambiguity of the laws concerning intellectual
property rights and the complexity in the roles that institutions play
in digital preservation in relation to access, it was difficult for the
Working Group to thoroughly cover all information needed about rights to
preserve in the data dictionary.  

 

The Library of Congress, as part of the PREMIS maintenance activity,
commissioned Karen Coyle to provide this study to assist the newly
established PREMIS Editorial Committee, in consultation with the PREMIS
Implementers Group, with its first revision of the data dictionary and
schemas.  The intention is to improve the specification so that
institutions trying to assess their rights to preserve materials in
digital formats will be able to provide enough information in their
digital repositories to make such assessments about their materials over
time. In this study Karen Coyle reviews the landscape of digital rights,
analyzes various preservation rights scenarios and the sorts of
preservation actions that digital repositories might take, relates
copyright law to preservation actions, and provides recommendations for
revision where the data dictionary needs expansion. 

 

The report, Rights in the PREMIS Data Model, is available at:

http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/Rights-in-the-PREMIS-Data-Model.pdf

 

Further information about the PREMIS Maintenance Activity is at:

http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/

 

Distributed for

Rebecca S. Guenther

Senior Networking and Standards Specialist

Network Development and MARC Standards Office

1st and Independence Ave. SE

Library of Congress

Washington, DC 20540-4402

(202) 707-5092 (voice)

(202) 707-0115 (FAX)

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by
Robert C. Bolander 
Communications & Programs Manager 
OCLC Programs & Research 
tel: +1.614.761.5207 
fax: +1.614.718.7602 
web: http://www.oclc.org/research/
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