Using DC Metadata in preservation content: the case of the Italian “Protocollo Informatico”

Digital preservation of administrative records is an essential requirement within public organizations. In the past few years, many countries have created rules and procedures, based on the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) Reference Model, in order to guarantee long-term preservation of their information objects. In Italy, the Technical Regulations on Digital Preservation, issued in 2013, have added an important piece to a long legislative process regarding Records Management and Digital Administration which has too often remained unimplemented in PA practices. Mandatory protocol register digital preservation has revealed the criticality of the system, and in particular, the lack of shared models and common terminology, regarding both key concepts and their properties and functions. Thus, during the transfer phase from the records management system to that of digital preservation, the risk associated with the digital preservation process in our country is that records and information may lose in coherence and consistency. This would undermine the probative value of the records and of the administrative action. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the design of a coherent Submission Information Package (SIP) from a Records Management System to an Open Archival Information System (OAIS).