Digital Preservation Recorder
National Archives of Australia
Introduction
The widespread use of computer systems has brought about an information revolution that has resulted in a significant shift in the way that Government agencies create and manage their records. The National Archives of Australia (NAA) is responding to this revolution by extending its preservation and storage strategies to cope with new types of records; digital records.
The Digital Preservation Recorder (DPR) is one of a suite of programs developed by the NAA as part of their digital preservation system. It was built to maintain a verifiable audit trail of the activities involved in the processing of digital records. It records a complete life history for each piece of data that is processed by the NAA and stored in the digital repository.
The Process
The NAA has developed a digital preservation process that is broken down into three stages. Each of the three stages takes place on an isolated computer network. The three networks are called Quarantine, Preservation and Repository.
1. Quarantine
Digital records given to the NAA for preservation are first connected to the Quarantine facility. The contents of the transfer media are checked to confirm that the files received are those that the originator intended to send and all media are checked for the presence of computer borne malware or viruses.
Once a virus check is passed the records are copied to a carrying device, disconnected from the Quarantine network and stored for a period of 28 days. During the 28 day quarantine period, the virus definitions on the Quarantine network are updated daily.
After 28 days have passed, the carrying device is again connected to the Quarantine network and the data is scanned for the presence of viruses.
2. Preservation
The carrying device is connected to the Preservation network and the individual data files are converted to XML via the open source application Xena. The XML files created by Xena are recorded on a second carrying device for transfer to the Digital Repository.
3. Repository
The carrying device is connected to the Digital Repository network and the XML representations of the original data are copied to long-term storage arrays.
The DPR
Each of the three isolated digital preservation networks hosts a copy of the DPR software. The DPR provides a graphic user interface through which the process of digital preservation may be monitored. Information recorded by the DPR is stored in a Postgres database on each facility. To propagate information about the whole preservation process across the isolated networks, the DPR provides a database export that is copied to the carrying device along with the data being treated and is imported to the successive stages.
Features of the DPR
- Cross platform – uses a Java Runtime Environment.
- Metadata recording.
- User authentication and profiling.
- Multiple concurrent users.
- Detailed reporting.