The repository shall have mechanisms in place for monitoring its preservation environment.

This is necessary so that the repository can react to changes and thereby ensure that the preserved information remains understandable and usable by the Designated Community.

Surveys of the Designated Community of the repository.

The repository should show that it has some active mechanism to ensure that the preserved information remains understandable and usable by the Designated Community and that it has mechanisms in place for monitoring and notification when Representation Information (including formats) approaches obsolescence or is no longer viable. For most repositories, the concern will be with the Representation Information used to preserve information, which may include information on how to deal with a file format or software that can be used to render or process it. Sometimes the format needs to change because the repository can no longer deal with it. Sometimes the format is retained and the information about what software is needed to process it needs to change. If the mechanism depends on an external registry, the repository must demonstrate how it uses the information from that registry.

APTrust preserves the entire set of information properties associated with the content information as submitted in the SIP. In its core service, APTrust does NOT perform specific file-changing “preservation actions” on the files during or after ingest. (This includes actions such as file format migration, file normalization, and the creation of descriptive metadata and rights management.)

APTrust software and hardware are monitored and updated on a regular basis, as described in Support and Maintenance and Infrastructure and Security Risk Management.

Additional information can be found in Definition of AIP and Definition of SIP.

APTrust’s definition of designated community was approved at our Winter 2018 meeting.