Implementing the Lifecycle in a Multi-Purpose Preservation System

This paper aims to explain how the National Library of France(BnF) faced the question of the information lifecycle, during theimplementation of its digital preservation system, in the light ofthe experience it acquired managing and using this system, froma theoretical approach following the OAIS reference model to animplementation. It was understood very early that from a preser-vation point of view the management of subsequent Versions andEditions of an Information Package was a particularly sensitiveproblem akin to risks management. However it was thought at thetime that the system should be able to manage the lifecycle of anAIP (Archival Information Package) in a universal way that wouldbe valid whatever the package considered and the context. Theseideas quickly proved to be impractical and didn’t resist the testof reality. Some improvements were provided, while taking intoaccount the rest of the digital ecosystem of the BnF.

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