page_title: Open Archival Information System
section_title: The reference model
hierarchical_section_title: Open Archival Information System / The reference model
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: OAIS modellen Svenska: OAIS Modellen
context_page_description: An Open Archival Information System is an archive, consisting of an organization of people and systems, that has accepted the responsibility to preserve information and make it available for a Designated Community. The OAIS model can be applied to various archives, e.g., “open access, closed, restricted, “dark, ” or proprietary.
  The term OAIS also refers, by extension, to the ISO OAIS Reference Model for an OAIS. This reference model is defined by recommendation CCSDS 650.0-B-2 of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems; this text is identical to ISO 14721:2012. The CCSDS's purview is space agencies, but the OAIS model it developed has proved useful to other organizations and institutions with digital archiving needs. OAIS, known as ISO 14721:2003, is widely accepted and utilized by various organizations and disciplines, both national and international, and was designed to ensure preservation. The OAIS standard, published in 2005, is considered the optimum standard to create and maintain a digital repository over a long period of time.
  The information being maintained has been deemed to need "long term preservation," even if the OAIS itself is not permanent.
context_section_description: The reference model:
  provides a framework for the understanding and increased awareness of archival concepts needed for long term digital information preservation and access.
  provides the concepts needed by non-archival organizations to be effective participants in the preservation process.
  provides a framework, including terminology and concepts, for describing and comparing architectures and operations of existing and future archives.
  provides a framework for describing and comparing different long term preservation strategies and techniques.
  provides a basis for comparing the data models of digital information preserved by Archives and for discussing how data models and the underlying information may change over time.
  provides a foundation that may be expanded by other efforts to cover long-term preservation of information that is not in digital form (e.g., physical media and physical samples).
  expands consensus on the elements and processes for long-term digital information preservation and access, and promotes a larger market which vendors can support.
  guides the identification and production of OAIS-related standards.
caption: OAIS Functional Entities.