Receipt of Submission
When the negotiation between a data producer and a repository results in a submission of content to the repository, there must be checks in place to validate and process the submission. Secure handling of the submission is also critical. Many repositories establish an accession register that tracks all submissions and identifies them uniquely.
Community Standards and Practice
According to the OAIS Reference Model:
Digital SIPs may be delivered via electronic transfer (e.g., FTP), loaded from media submitted to the archive, or simply mounted (e.g., CD-ROM) on the archive file system for access. Non-digital SIPs would likely be delivered by conventional shipping procedures. The Receive Submission function may represent a legal transfer of custody for the Content Information in the SIP, and may require that special access controls be placed on the contents. This function provides a confirmation of receipt of a SIP to the Producer, which may include a request to resubmit a SIP in the case of errors resulting from the SIP submission. (OAIS Reference Model)
Format Verification
Upon receipt of a submission, tools may be used to read file formats and validate that the file extensions properly describe a given file: JHOVE (JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment) - pronounced "jove" - is a joint project of JSTOR and the Harvard University Library to develop an extensible framework for format validation. JHOVE is a format-specific digital object validation API written in Java . JHOVE 2 is in development at http://confluence.ucop.edu/display/JHOVE2Info/Home.
PRONOM is an online information system about data file formats and their supporting software products. Originally developed to support the accession and long-term preservation of electronic records held by the National Archives in the UK, PRONOM has been made available as a resource for anyone requiring access to this type of information. The Unified Digital Formats Registry has combined with PRONOM: http://www.gdfr.info/udfr.html.
ICPSR's Approach to Receipt of Submission
At ICPSR, all data are deposited via an electronic Deposit Form. Files uploaded via this secure system are all given unique deposit IDs and moved to the appropriate area for further processing. Data producers sign off on the deposit and ICPSR sends confirmation of the receipt of materials. Physical submissions that arrive at ICPSR via removable media like CD-ROMs or DVDs are immediately copied to a secure location and the copy process is verified to ensure that all files transferred properly.
