Contents:
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Data Preservation Strategies
- 3. Preservation Metadata Initiatives and Standards
- 4. Relevant Framework 7 Projects
- 5. Relevant Framework 6 Projects
- 6. Other Relevant Projects and Developments
- 7. Institutional Issues
- 8. Preservation Metadata for Games
- 9. Non-preservation Metadata for Games
- 10. Abandonware Sites
- 11. Abbreviations
- 12. Bibliography
- 13. Endnotes
This large deliverable (85 pages) from the KEEP project (Keeping Emulation Environments Portable) focuses on the preservation metadata needed within an emulation preservation framework, an approach which requires more detailed information on environments (e.g, creating application, operating system etc.). After chapter one, an overview of current preservation metadata development within different preservation strategies, chapter two goes on to describe the different preservation strategies, differentiating between migration based strategies, the emulation approach and KEEP’s hybrid approach. Chapter three presents an overview of preservation metadata model initiatives, emphasizing their applicability within migration based preservation strategies and their insufficiencies for emulation strategies. Initiatives include OAIS, PREMIS, CEDARS, METS, LMER as well as a few earlier approaches PANDORA and NEDLIB. It includes a section on ‘types’ of metadata and the different roles they play. Chapter four and five review digital preservation Framework 6 and 7 Projects. Chapter 8 describes other relevant related initiatives, such as Europeana and the various registries under development. Chapter 7 examines the role played by ‘environment’ or ‘technical’ metadata in current metadata standards and practice in three national libraries and a computer games museum: Bibliothèque nationale de France (France), Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (Germany), Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Netherlands) and Computerspielemuseum Berlin (Germany). This is done by briefly describing each institution and their main relevant collaboration / initiatives; their collections policies and the resulting range of data objects; and lastly their current systems and future plans, highlighting the part played by emulation and environment metadata. Chapter 8 and 9 address preservation and non-preservation metadata for games. Chapter 10 reviews ‘Abandonware’- obsolete or historical software that still falls under copyright protection but is deemed to be no longer an object of interest to its developers or publishers. The authors all come from the University of Portsmouth in the UK.
Because this report is written with an eye to employing emulation preservation strategies as opposed to the more generally accepted migration strategies, it offers a different and interesting look at all the preservation metadata schemas, models and initiatives as well as illustrating the ‘migration strategy dilemma’–defining the ‘key features and core functionality’ that may be needed it satisfy a future, yet currently indefinable software/hardware universe or user need. Its overview of the pros and cons of different metadata schemas and models is good; in particular, the section on PREMIS is quite thorough. Although the project partners do not manage audiovisual digital objects, the report provides valuable reference information on the entire spectrum of digital preservation metadata.