Heratio Help Center article. Category: Digital Preservation.

Digital preservation in Heratio: an overview

What this is

Digital preservation is the set of activities that keep your digital files usable, authentic, and trustworthy for decades - long after the original software, file formats, and storage media have changed. This article explains the core ideas in plain language and points to where each one lives in Heratio.

The key ideas

• OAIS is the international reference model (ISO 14721) for how an archive takes in, stores, and gives access to digital content. It gives us the language of "information packages": what you receive (a SIP), what you keep (an AIP), and what you hand out (a DIP).
• Fixity means a file is unchanged, bit for bit, over time. Heratio proves this with checksums - digital fingerprints it computes on ingest and rechecks later. A mismatch means corruption or tampering.
• Format identification means knowing exactly what kind of file you hold (using the international PRONOM registry and PUIDs), so you can spot formats at risk of becoming unreadable and migrate them in good time.
• Preservation metadata (PREMIS) records everything that happens to a file - every fixity check, virus scan, format identification, and migration - so the history is auditable.
• Packaging (BagIt and METS) bundles files with their checksums and metadata so they can move and be stored safely.
• Multiple copies in separate places, verified regularly, protect against loss; Heratio can replicate to several targets and repair a damaged file from a good copy.

Where to find it in Heratio

See also

• How fixity and checksums work (help: "Fixity and checksums")
• Format identification with PRONOM (help: "Format identification")
• OAIS packages: SIP, AIP, DIP (help: "OAIS packages")
• Your preservation maturity score (help: "Preservation Maturity Self-Assessment")