Description of minimum metadata for integration and digital preservation of the scientific and cultural collections of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz: a case study.

Abstract

From the creation of a multidisciplinary Working Group for the elaboration of normative institutional documents “Digital Preservation Plan” and “Digitalization Manual”, aimed at the implementation of actions related to digital preservation in the scientific and cultural collections of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), it was observed the need to establish minimum standards of descriptive metadata, to integrate and streamline access to the different digital objects that represent the archival, bibliographic, museological and biological collections that make up the institution’s patrimony. Considering the historical character (some dating from the eighteenth century), evidence, informative, and the scientific and cultural function of these objects, specific metadata will also be set to support both their long-term preservation and the very descriptive metadata attributed to them. It should be noted that although different objects (museum pieces, bibliographic items, archival documents and biological collections) are treated, the proposal of this communication will be to present the methodology applied for the definition of integrative metadata based on the use of the Dublin Core (DC) standard and for the definition of long-term preservation metadata, based on the Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) with the authenticity, reliability and accessibility premises.