Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Administrative and preservation metadata > Preservation metadata
Preservation metadata
Assessing the use of PREMIS semantic units and PREMIS XML schemas in the preservation of personal archives
The <rights> entity
The PREMIS working group established only a bare minimum of rights metadata in version 1.0 of the Data Dictionary: the rights entity only allows repositories to record permissions granted by rightsholders in respect of preservation actions on the objects in which they hold rights. It is not a vehicle for rights metadata relating to rights for access and use by end-users, and cannot record information about the copyright status of an object.
The Library of Congress commissioned Karen Coyle to prepare a report on PREMIS' capacity for rights metadata in preparation for the first review of the Data Dictionary. Coyle's report, published in December 2006, recommends a number of changes to this element, for better recording of rights-related information. In particular, Coyle recommends that the addition of semantic units which would allow repositories to act in accordance with statutory rights be added to the standard. This would be of great benefit to repositories of archives and manuscripts which can usually seek explicit permissions only from the donor of the archive, meaning that material in which third-party copyright resides must be managed according to statutory, rather than contractual, provisions. For more about intellectual property rights relating to digital archives in preservation and access, see Chapter 09 Legal issues; also see further in this chapter for more on rights metadata.
4.1 <permissionStatement> A container for metadata elements used to record details of permission(s) granted by the rightsholder to the repository to undertake acts in respect of one or more objects to which the rightsholder hold the rights.
4.1.1 <permissionStatementIdentifier> Used to record the identifier type and value for the permission statement.
4.1.2 <linkingObject> Repeatable element used to link to object(s) covered by the <permissionStatement>. Ideally this should link to Intellectual Entities, which are more stable than their Representations and Files.
4.1.3 <grantingAgent> Used to identify the granting agent; if details of the agent are held in a PREMIS agent entity, the <agentIdentifier> should be used.
4.1.4 <grantingAgreement> Contains semantic units to describe the granting agreement. A <grantingAgreementIdentification> may be recorded, using either a repository-style identifier (e.g. if an agreement is held in the repository as a digital image of the donation agreement, or an email from the donor, then the agreement will have a formal id type and value) or a less formal means of identification (e.g. Agreement with Donor Y, 28 January 2007 - paper file held by Bodleian Secretariat). The actual text of the agreement, or a paraphrase or other description of it may also be held in <grantingAgreementInformation>.
4.1.5 <permissionGranted> A container for details of the permission granted.
4.1.5.1 <act> Used to record the action that the repository is permitted to undertake. The element is repeatable and must be populated from a controlled vocabulary, using terms such as ‘replicate', ‘migrate' and ‘modify'. PREMIS suggests that the vocabulary be the same as that used for eventType values in the event entity. It might be difficult and inflexible for an archival repository to enumerate and predict all acts required and seek permission to undertake them; a less granular approach may be more suitable.
4.1.5.2 <restriction> Used to record any constraint relating to the <act>, such as frequency, quantity, need to inform rightsholder, etc.
4.1.5.3 <termOfGrant> Container element used to record the term of the grant using an ISO 8601 encoded <startDate> and <endDate>. The start date will probably be the date of the agreement governing the placement of the archive at the repository and the end date the date that copyright expires, if this can be ascertained.
4.1.5.4 <permissionNote> Allows the repository to make a note of further explanations. It could be used to note that permission has been sought from the principal creator/depositor of the archive to which the object(s) belong, but that other rightsholders are unknown, or have not granted permissions for preservation acts.
