OCFL Tutorial: Foundations, Affordances and Implementations

The Oxford Common File Layout (OCFL) in an application-independent approach to the storage of digital information in a structured, transparent, and predictable manner. It is designed to promote long-term object management best practices within digital repositories. This tutorial will describe the foundational motivations and goals of OCFL, the current status of the specifications and the affordances they provide, and then describe openly available implementations and tools to enable the use of OCFL. Attendees will gain an understanding of OCFL and how its use supports preservation; an understanding of the status of OCFL specifications, extensions and implementations; and insight into the capabilities of a range of open implementations and tools sufficient to direct further investigation. This tutorial will be of interest to repository managers, developers, and library technologists involved with a wide range of repository systems including preservation repositories and institutional repositories.