Draft:EArchiving Initiative

The eArchiving Initiative, part of the Digital Europe Programme of the European Commission, defines standards - in form of specifications - and tools to ensure the long-term preservation and reuse of digital information.

E-ARK Project
The origins of the eArchiving Initiative trace back to the original E-ARK project (2014–2017). The E-ARK (European Archival Records and Knowledge Preservation) project aimed to provide a standards, guidelines, and tools for archiving electronic records to ensure their longevity and accessibility.

E-ARK4ALL and E-ARK3
Following the initial E-ARK project, the European Commission launched E-ARK4ALL under the Connecting Europe Facility] (CEF) programme. This phase focused on building the eArchiving Common Services Platform (CSP). The E-ARK4ALL project extended the original framework and began setting up the infrastructure to support adoption of the standards.

The subsequent E-ARK3 project, part of the Digital Europe Programme, further developed the CSP and formalized the eArchiving specifications.

Interoperability
The eArchiving Initiative aims to foster interoperability by adhering to international standards and specifications for packaging digital information.

Openness and transparency
A fundamental aspect of eArchiving is the use of open specifications for packaging and archiving digital information.

Interoperability and sustainability
eArchiving supports the implementation of interoperable digital archival systems with reusable modular components.

Technical specifications
The eArchiving technical specifications describe open formats for packaging data and metadata to ensure the interoperability of archival solutions and data repositories. At the core of these specifications is the Common Specification for Information Packages (CSIP), which defines the general format requirements for all other specifications in the hierarchy of (Open Archival Information System (OAIS) ) information packages, namely (SIP, AIP, DIP).

Key specifications

 * E-ARK Common Specification for Information Packages (CSIP): This specification outlines the fundamental requirements for information packages.
 * E-ARK Submission Information Package (SIP): Specifies the format for packages transferred to archival repositories.
 * E-ARK Archival Information Package (AIP): Details the format for preserving information over extended periods.
 * E-ARK Dissemination Information Package (DIP): Describes the format for reusing archived content.

Additionally, there are Content Information Type Specifications (CITS) for specific application domains, such as geospatial data (CITS Geospatial ), relational databases (CITS SIARD ), and health records (CITS eHealth1 Patient Medical Records ).

Maintenance and updates
The eArchiving specifications are maintained by the Digital Information LifeCycle Interoperability Standards (DILCIS) Board.