Alma Specto Preservation

Preserving Digital Collections

The principle function of Specto Preservation is the preservation of your digital files. To ensure that your files are safe and stable, Specto Preservation runs a series of data checks on them, referred to as Preservation Services. If errors are found by the Preservation Services, the titles and files are displayed on the Technical Issues page for you to handle. This series of checks is performed during the following workflows:

• When submitting new titles to Specto Preservation – any titles with errors appear under the Submissions tab
• When adding a file to a title already in Specto Preservation – any titles with errors appear under the Data Management tab
• When migrating files from one file format to another – any titles with errors appear under the Migration tab

Preservation Services in Specto Preservation

Specto Preservation performs a series of data checks, referred to as Preservation Services, during the activities listed above. These checks are performed by various third-party tools that are used by Specto Preservation. When a check detects an error, the title is listed on the Technical Issues page with the name of the error and several options for how you can handle it. The following are the Preservation Services that are performed:

• Virus Check – checks if the file contains any viruses. If a virus is detected, an error is displayed. This is the most serious error.
• Fixity Check – checks if there was an unexpected change to the file data. If an unexpected change is detected, an error is displayed. An unexpected change may indicate that the data was corrupted.
• Format Identification – checks the format of the file and compares it to the file extension. If the actual file format does not match the extension or if the check cannot determine the file format, an error is displayed.
• Technical MD Extraction/Format Validation – extracts the metadata of the file and validates that the file format matches the format specifications. If metadata cannot be extracted or the file format does not match the format specifications, an error is displayed.
• System Error – an additional error that can appear that is not related to a Preservation Service is a System Error. System Errors are detected by internal Rosetta processes and may indicate a problem with the functioning of Specto Preservation. If you receive a System Error, contact Specto Preservation Support.