Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Introduction > Background

Background

Arrangement of the Workbook

The Workbook is loosely arranged around the lifecycle of a personal digital archive which was assembled by the Paradigm project as a means of fusing the ideas and standards relating to digital curation and preservation with established archival practice.

Digital Archives & the Records Cycle

The Paradigm lifecycle moves through seven key stages from interactions with those creating archival materials; to effecting authentic and secure transfer of materials to archival custody; to processing new accessions and preparing them for archival storage; to preservation monitoring and actions while materials are in archival storage; to preparing materials for researcher access in a reading room; and finally to publishing materials to online digital repositories once rights have expired. Record management concepts have played an important role in the development of this lifecycle as have the concepts of the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (ISO 14721:2003). In recognition of the importance of the OAIS model to all areas of Paradigm's work and this Workbook, a short introduction to the model is provided here.