includes all the components necessary to provide access, including the digital object, metadata, and the current software tools appropriate for viewing the object.
The importance of the OAIS framework is that it provides a comprehensive and well-accepted methodology for creating digital collections in a way that ensure permanence. It may well be the case that not all the organizations that create digital collections will be able to address or implement every aspect of the complete system. It does serve as a benchmark that can be used to access current efforts at building digital archives and to guide the design of future ones.
Whether or not one chooses to follow the OAIS model, the issue of digital preservation is a vital one. I think that we all want the words, art, and other creations of our age to survive into the distant future to at least the same degree as the works of the past have survived into our time. With careful planning and ongoing commitments of resources, the ideal of long-term access to our digitized collections can be realized. The challenge continues to revolve around the fact that cycles of technology are increasingly short and that the future is infinitely long.