Open Archival Information System (OAIS)

Maintained by the Council of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).

Open Archival Information System (OAIS) is known as a “reference model,” defining concepts and responsibilities essential for ensuring preservation of digital information. The most well-known feature of OAIS is its categorization of information packages by their function. The Submission Information Package(SIP) is the content and metadata received from an information producer by a preservation respository. An Archival Information Package (AIP) is the set of content and metadata managed by a preservation repository, and organized in a way that allows the repository to perform preservation services. The Dissemination Information Package (DIP) is distributed to a consumer by the repository in response to a request, and may contain content spanning multiple AIPs. Preservation repository software frequently is described as “OAIS-compliant” to indicate a certain amount of functionality and standardization of features.