A Metadata Framework for Long Term Digital Preservation of 3D Data

Preservation metadata, information that supports and documents the long term preservation of a digital object, is an essential component of any preservation environment that must manage knowledge over time. It describes the digital object’s associated semantic information. Furthermore, in the case of preserving 3D data, it can also support future postprocessing of the preserved 3D object. However, a preservation metadata framework to support semantic data associated with a 3D object is currently lacking. Two of the greatest challenges in developing such a framework include anticipating what semantic information should be included within the framework and in what format it should be modeled. These challenges, within the context of 3D digital objects, are the focus of this paper.