Preservation-centric and constraint-based migration of digital documents

Abstract

We introduce a framework that supports archivists in planning and running migrations. The central idea is that -once relevant information pieces of digital documents are modeled -desired migration results can be specified by means of preservation constraints. From these constraint specifications we are able to derive migration algorithms that provably respect a set of document properties before (pre-conditions) and after migration (post-conditions). Underlying is the concept of Abstract State Machines (ASM) modeling archival states. Migrations are modeled as sequences of basic operations that change the archive's state while respecting userdefined constraints. Among others, our target scenarios comprise legal and medical documents where considerable property changes cannot be tolerated and where constraint preservation must hold over a long period of time.