5. Metadata for preservation

ETDs life cycle in Germany is accompanied by METADISS^<8> , a set of qualified Dublin Core metadata elements describing relevant document properties for data exchange between document servers of universities or university libraries and Die Deutsche Bibliothek. METADISS came into being when work about metadata elements for preservation was still in its infancy. Meanwhile several projects, including NEDLIB, have proposed specialized metadata sets of variable granularity in different application scenarios. The OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata has published a synoptic view^<9> of the most important sets as a contribution for the cooperative development of a preservation metadata framework. Today, METADISS does not sufficiently reflect the need for preservation metadata and will have to be enriched soon accordingly. In 2001, Die Deutsche Bibliothek has implemented a submission interface for online publications^<10> , produced by publishers and other institutions. During the submission procedure, we also ask for technical metadata relevant for preservation purposes. We tried to find a compromise between the workload publishers are willing to bear under the conditions of voluntary submission, and the extensive requirements of future preservation processes in our deposit system. A moderate solution was the definition of so called "reference systems", representing the software and hardware requirements for a certain publication type during a period of time. I. e. we do not investigate too many technical details about those requirements, which are presently customary in the market. Instead, we record extraordinary conditions the publication needs for rendering. Nevertheless, the level of metadata granularity still has to be discussed and, even more important, a consensus between metadata creators, intermediaries and end users has to be found. In our view, National Library of New Zealand's Metadata Standards Framework for Preservation Metadata^<11> has a high potential for bridging the gap between practicalities of metadata creation, capture and the high level conceptual principles of a preservation framework. The importance of persistent identifiers as part of a metadata framework for ETDs will be covered by one of my colleagues from the project "EPICUR - Enhancement of Persistent Identifier Services - Comprehensive Method for unequivocal Resource Identification"^<12> during another session in this conference.

Footnotes:
<8>	http://www.deposit.ddb/metadiss.htm
<9>	http://www.oclc.org/research/pmwg/background.shtm
<10>	http://deposit.ddb.de/netzpub/web_abgabe_np_gesamt_e.htm
<11>	http://www.natlib.govt.nz/files/4initiatives_metaschema.pdf
<12>	http://www.persistent-identifier.de/

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