PREMIS Maintenance Activity and Editorial Committee
The goals of the PREMIS Maintenance Activity are to:
- Maintain a permanent Web presence for the PREMIS Data Dictionary and related materials;
- Serve as a central destination for PREMIS-related information, announcements, and resources;
- Facilitate communication between PREMIS implementers via electronic communications (such as listservs and wikis);
- Coordinate future revisions of the Data Dictionary and XML schema;
- Raise awareness of the value and uses of PREMIS information.
Maintenance Activity
An organized Maintenance Activity is needed to ensure that each of these objectives is met. It should provide a sufficient degree of centralized coordination to ensure that priorities are set, resources are allocated to appropriate activities, and the activities move forward in a timely fashion; at the same time, the structure should be as lightweight as possible.
A Managing Agency will coordinate the developments in the PREMIS "back office": hosting the Web site, handling inquiries, raising awareness, and maintaining/moderating the discussion lists. The Library of Congress (LC) will assume these responsibilities, working in conjunction with the Editorial Committee. The Managing Agency will support Editorial Committee activities. The official web site for PREMIS is www.loc.gov/premis.
As of May 2006, the Library of Congress has provided funds to support two PREMIS consultancies and PREMIS also has some funds in hand from the Digital Preservation Award prize money, and the remains of some "seed money" OCLC provided to the original Working Group. When additional funds are required to support activities, the Managing Agency will work with the Editorial Committee (or other users) to apply for appropriate grants.
An Editorial Committee will work with the Managing Agency to set directions and priorities for PREMIS development in order to ensure that sufficient resources are available to support needed initiatives and achieve PREMIS goals. The members will be responsible for coordinating and approving future revisions of the Data Dictionary and XML schema. They will be expected to be active in writing articles, answering questions, organizing and participating in workshops, and generally acting as information providers for PREMIS. In some cases, they will be taking leadership roles within their countries for PREMIS use and implementation. It is expected that the Managing Agency and the Editorial Committee will use the Implementers' Group for broader perspectives on all issues.
Membership. Membership on the Editorial Committee will be restricted to experts from institutions that are committed to implementing the Data Dictionary in their own digital archiving systems. Any institution meeting this criterion and willing to donate resources to the maintenance and revision of the Data Dictionary is eligible. The Committee will not have more than 10 members, each with 2-year terms, extendable for additional 2-year terms. Appointments will target keeping a diversity of interests, perspectives, and experience on the committee. The Managing Agency will make the appointments in consultation with key implementers and developers. The Editorial Committee will appoint one of its members as Chair. The Chair will serve a two-year term.
A PREMIS Implementers' Group (PIG) discussion list (listserv) is operational. Any party interested in the Data Dictionary and issues associated with its implementation in digital archiving systems is welcome to join by subscribing. All of the activities of the Editorial Committee will be shared on the list. All change proposals or other development questions will be offered for discussion on the list.