# Open Archival Information System **Domain:** Digital Preservation / Standards **Doc Type:** Canonical Standards Node **Maturity:** Current Standard ## Definition The **Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model** is a preservation framework describing the responsibilities and information packages required for an archive to preserve information for a designated community over the long term. ## Continuity Relevance OAIS separates submission, archival and dissemination information packages and emphasizes representation information: the knowledge required to understand preserved data. This makes it directly relevant to continuity state whose bits may survive while formats, software and institutional memory disappear. OAIS does not establish identity, personhood, active execution or a duty to host a computational subject. It is an existing preservation standard that supplies one layer beneath [[wiki/Long-Term Digital Preservation|Long-Term Digital Preservation]] and [[wiki/Executable Preservation|Executable Preservation]]. ## Current Status CCSDS published issue 3 of the OAIS Reference Model as CCSDS 650.0-M-3 in December 2024. Its use here is factual at the preservation layer and analogical at the personhood layer. ## Sources / Provenance - [CCSDS 650.0-M-3: Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System](https://ccsds.org/publications/allpubs/entry/3054/). - [CCSDS OAIS PDF](https://ccsds.org/Pubs/650x0m3.pdf). ## See Also [[wiki/Trustworthy Digital Repository|Trustworthy Digital Repository]], [[wiki/Continuity Provenance|Continuity Provenance]], [[wiki/Continuity Custody|Continuity Custody]]