Linking Collection Management Policy to Metadata for Preservation – a Guidance Model to Define Metadata Description Levels in Digital Archives

Abstract

In an environment of rapid technological change, collection managers face the challenge of ensuring that valuable resources remain accessible when there are changes to the technological context in which those resources are embedded. In this context of requiring "accessibility over time", digital preservation initiatives also demand for interoperability, or as what Hedstrom calls temporal interoperability. But first, libraries, especially in the academic world, need some general guidelines to assist in selectively choosing digital resources which are of great need to collect and preserve. This paper attempts to provide some structure for the concepts and ideas on a general collection management decision guide in the form of a requirements analysis framework that may assist in determining the metadata granularity required for digital resource management within an archive. The objective is for metadata and mechanisms to be shared among digital archives, but policies can be tailored to the requirements of the organization.