Plans for an OAIS Interoperable Data Architecture and Protocols

Long-term digital preservation archives are critical to preserving any culture’s history and accomplishments. However, these archives typically have unique bespoke access methods for each archive. This paper announces a new initiative to establish an Interoperability Framework for Open Archival Information System (OAIS) archives. We believe a well-understood interface and access method will not only improve efficiency and capabilities for archivists and researchers but also better insure access to such archives in the long term, better enabling the preservation mission of OAIS archives. This paper provides background on the CCSDS Data Archive Interoperability (DAI) Working Group that established the OAIS reference model and other associated standards. It describes the plan to extend the OAIS ecosystem to include an OAIS Interoperability Framework (OAIS-IF) and the software architecture that enables it. The architecture includes producer and consumer interfaces, an 2 abstraction layer and “plug-ins” or “bindings” (APIs or protocols) that handle the unique needs of access to each discipline archive. We are presenting this paper with the goals of (1) increasing awareness of OAIS and its applicability for digital reservation archives, (2) explaining the plan for an interoperable data architecture applicable to most preservation archives, (3) seeking peer review for this approach, and (4) explaining how archive providers might play a role in developing a part of this architecture specific to their archive instantiation or discipline. Specifically, we anticipate that the standards and prototypes for some of these bindings will be provided by the discipline communities or by developers of OAIS archives to serve their specific needs.