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Makeup and Definition of AIPs

AIPs are Archival Information Packages.

• AIP is a package describing one archival object.
  • The archival object may be a single Item, Collection, Community, or Site (Site AIPs contain site-wide information). Bitstreams are included in an Item's AIP.
  • Each AIP is logically self-contained, can be restored without rest of the archive. (So you could restore a single Item, Collection or Community)
  • Collection or Community AIPs do not include all child objects (e.g. Items in those Collections or Communities), as each AIP only describes one object. However, these AIPs do contain references (links) to all child objects. These references can be used by DSpace to automatically restore all referenced AIPs when restoring a Collection or Community.
  • AIP profile favors completeness and accuracy rather than presenting the semantics of an object in a standard format. It conforms to the quirks of DSpace's internal object model rather than attempting to produce a universally understandable representation of the object. When possible, an AIP tries to use common standards to express objects.
  • An AIP can serve as a DIP (Dissemination Information Package) or SIP (Submission Information Package), especially when transferring custody of objects to another DSpace implementation.
• In contrast to SIP or DIP, the AIP should include all available DSpace structural and administrative metadata, and basic provenance information. AIPs will also describe some basic system level information (e.g. Groups and People).

General AIP Structure / Examples

Generally speaking, an AIP is an Zip file containing a METS manifest and all related content bitstreams, license files and any other associated files.

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• Wiki Markup
  DSpace Site configurations (\[dspace\]/config/ directory) or customizations (themes, stylesheets, etc) are not described in AIPs

• DSpace Database model (or customizations therein) is not described in AIPs

Customizing What Is Stored in Your AIPs

If you choose, you can customize exactly what information is stored in your AIPs. However, you should be aware that you can only restore information which is stored within your AIPs. If you choose to remove information from your AIPs, you will be unable to restore it later on (unless you are also backing up your entire DSpace database and assetstore folder).

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