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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
Library of Congress
(202) 707-5092 (voice)
(202) 707-0115 (FAX)
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/