Introduction - Advanced Digital Preservation - page 5

The answers will be based on the approach provided by the Open Archival
Information System (OAIS) Reference Model, also known as ISO 14721 [ 1 ], an
international standard which is used as the basis of much, perhaps most, of the work
in this area. Indeed it has been said [ 14 ] that it is “ now adopted as the 'de facto'
standard for building digital archives ”.
This topic aims to lead the reader into the more advanced topics which need to
be addressed to find solutions to the threats to our digital belongings, and more.
1.2 Terminology
Throughout this topic we use the term “archive” to mean, following OAIS [ 1 ], the
organization, consisting of people and systems, responsible for digital preservation
(this is not the full OAIS definition - more on this later). Occasionally the term
“repository” or phrase “digital repository” is used to convey the same concept where
it fits with other usage.
1.3 Summary
Our society increasingly depends upon our continuing ability to access, under-
stand and use digitally encoded information. This chapter should have provided the
10,000 ft view of the issues which the rest of the topic aims to map out the solutions
for in detail.