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On Fri, 14 Jun 2002, Andrew Hubbertz wrote:

> I have a second Mets question here.
>
> In the OAIS Reference Model and the literature derived
> from it, there is frequent reference to 'information packages',
> which comprise content information and preservation
> description information, 'encapsulated and identifiable'
> by the packaging information.  In more recent literature,
> one hears of 'wrapping' digital objects.
>
At the Library of Congress, in the Audio-Visual Prototyping Project, we
have talked about literally wrapping metadata and bitstreams together,
usually thinking about TAR or ZIP or something, but not exactly the Base
64 stuff that Jerry wrote about.  We weren't at all sure about "keeping"
the encapsulated content that way for the long haul, but saw that it might
make sense (application depending) as an interface specification between
OAIS modules.  For example, our audio-visual group might have the
responsibility thru pre-ingestion, produce a SIP, and send it to a
different part of the Library to ingest and manage.  At one point, we
thought we might be the ingestors ourselves and actually make AIPs, which
we would send to the OAIS "storage and manage" team.  It was in this mood,
that our contractor wrote the paper:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/avprot/AIP-Study_v19.pdf (July 2001,
somewhat out of date now).  But so far--as Jerry correctly reported--we
store the bitstream/essences/files in our UNIX filesystems and the METS
data includes pointers to them.  (Which has provoked its own discussion:
shall they be located by means of persistent names [like a URN]?)

(If you are interested, the menu for my project's family of documents is
here:  http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/avprot/avlcdocs.html)

Best from Carl Fleischhauer
Library of Congress