Constructing a Preservation Technical Registry by Leveraging Community Best Practices

Developing a machine-readable and continuously updated registry of preservation policies and actions is critical for a digital preservation repository accommodating diverse resource types and designated user communities. To enhance the automated preservation workflow within the National Digital Preservation Program (NDDP), we conducted a comparative analysis of current technical registries in the digital preservation (DP) community. Our assessment focused on the breadth of format coverage, the completeness of risk factors, the frequency of information updates, and the interoperability.

This presentation primarily focuses on three key aspects:

1.    Designing the data model: We customized the Schema and API of the Preservation Action Registry (PAR) to cater to our internal workflow logic.

2.    Aggregating format risk factors: We sourced risk factors from reputable repositories such as the TNA's PRONOM,  and NARA's preservation framework etc., Subsequently, we designed NDPP’s format risk quantification formula based on its 37 factors. 

3.    Implementing dynamic updates: Our system is capable of dynamically detecting updates from community information sources and triggering preservation activities for relevant archived resources in time.