Operating Principles

The BDEARS initiative shall adhere to the following operating principles:

  1. BDEARS strives to comply with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model standard;
  2. BDEARS strives to comply or to participate in a repository infrastructure that complies with the general requirements for a Trusted Digital Repository;
  3. BDEARS adheres to prevailing community standards for preserving access to digital content whenever possible;
  4. BDEARS participates in the development and implementation of standards;
  5. BDEARS commits to an interoperable, scalable digital archive with appropriate storage management for content;
  6. BDEARS policies, procedures, and practices are clearly documented and consistent;
  7. BDEARS maintains hardware, software, and storage media containing archival content in keeping with prevailing best practices;
  8. BDEARS establishes procedures to meet archival requirements pertaining to provenance, chain of custody, authenticity, and integrity;
  9. BDEARS complies with intellectual property, copyright, and ownership rights for all content.