Preservation and archive policy

The Digital Repository of the Scientific Institutes implements a policy of long-term preservation of the digital resources deposited in it. The effective management of publishing and preservation of digital resources is carried out with the use of DInGO platform, especially dArceo long-term preservation system dedicated to the Repository, and additionally managed by the digitization service system called dLab - RCIN (http://rcin.org.pl/dlab/login). Currently, the system accepts the following types of files:

• Audio:
  • BWF, WAVE, MP3

• Text:
  • PDF/A, UTF-8 encoded text file

• Images
  • TIFF, JPEG2000, DNG, CR2

• Video
  • AVI, MPEG-4
• Data
  • XLS, XLSX

The system is located and operated by Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (Poznańskie Centrum Superkomputerowo-Sieciowe), which is an internationally recognized node of European research space in the field of information infrastructure of science and an important research and development center in the field of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). As a center of e-Infrastructure development, PSNC designed and built Metropolitan Network POZMAN, High Performance Computing Center and national broadband network PIONIER, maintained and further developed by PSNC.

In the case of RCIN resources, their long-term preservation is carried out by archiving packages (AIP), replicated in independent stage systems. Each archiving package is created in standardized way, using the METS format (so called container). This package is the result of data analysis mechanisms built in dArceo and contains content files, technical, descriptive and administrative metadata, i.e. all the necessary information to make such an object easy to read and interpret in the future. By default, the supported types are master objects (original files representing the object), production objects (master files after graphic processing / modifications that facilitate the use of the resource), and presentation objects (developed for end users). The development of the dArceo system and its functionality is consistent with the internationally recognized OAIS (Open Archival Information System) standard. dArceo uses a data migration approach for long-term preservation and uses appropriate Archival Information Package (AIP) to store data in the system.

From the point of view of long-term digital preservation of assets, it is extremely important that the dArceo system allows to run data migration or conversion functions (access to data is via API). Thanks to these mechanisms, it will be possible to migrate the old format to the new one without any loss of information or data conversion, which can be used, for example, to create presentation versions of the objects made available within the repository. It is also important that dArceo has built-in mechanisms for monitoring/controlling the data stored in the system. These mechanisms check whether the objects stored in the data storage system have been corrupted or modified. SHA-512 checksums are used for this purpose.

It is also important that the digital objects stored in the dArceo system can have different data formats. It is also equipped to handle large objects whose disk capacity is calculated in TB. In the context of the data analysis performed by the dArceo system when storing an object, textual, graphic, and audiovisual documents are supported by default. Moreover, metadata can be both provided by the user (along with master files) and extracted by mechanisms built in dArceo, which use such metadata extraction tools as FITS, FFMpeg or DROID.

The above solutions, while ensuring round-the-clock monitoring of system security, determine the effectiveness of long-term preservation of resources deposited in RCIN.