Transfer and Inventory Components of Developing Repository Services

Abstract

At the Library of Congress, our most basic data management needs are not surprising: How do we know what we have, where it is, and who it belongs to? How do we get files "new and legacy" from where they are to where they need to be? And how do we record and track events in the life cycle of our files? This presentation describes current work at the Library in implementing tools to meet these needs as a set of modular services -- Transfer, Transport, and Inventory -- that will fit into a larger scheme of repository services to be developed. These modular services do not equate to everything needed to call a system a repository. But this is a set of services that equate to many aspects of "ingest" and "archiving" the registry of a deposit activity, the controlled transfer and transport of files, and an inventory system that can be used to track files, record events in those files life cycles, and provide basic file-level discovery and auditing. This is the first stage in the development of a suite of tools to help the Library ensure long-term stewardship of its digital assets.