What is a good way to record information about the funding of a preservation project?

Question

Many digital preservation projects are funded by grants or donation. Analogous to naming a reading room, marking a shelf with a brass plaque, or placing a sticker in the book, I think it's important to recognize these contributions with something. Metadata seems like a good place to record this. For example,

<agent><agentName>Digital forensics workstation</agentName><donor>Generous foundation</donor><agent>

or

<event><eventType>Digitization</eventType><funder>NHPRC</funder></event>

or

<collection><name>Famous writer's hard drive</name><creator>Famous writer</creator><donor>Person who purchased collection at auction</donor></collection>

I scanned through PREMIS, METS, and EAD, but couldn't find anything. Does anyone record this information in a structured way and can they share advice on how they do it?

Answer 1

While not answering your question about capturing such information in a structured way, an alternative option for recognising donors/funding agencies' contributions might be to name a tool, process or collection after the donor/granting agency.

Answer 2

This might not be useful in your context, but JATS (Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Set) http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/   -- formerly known as NLM - contains elements for funders associated with a journal article

<funding-group> http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/tag-library/1.1d3/element/funding-group.html
<award-group> http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/tag-library/1.1d3/element/award-group.html
<funding-statement> http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/tag-library/1.1d3/element/funding-statement.html
<funding-source> http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/archiving/tag-library/1.1d3/element/funding-source.html

Comments

Thanks. I'll definitely use this as a model for suggestions next time EAD, PREMIS, or another standard asks for comments.