In the Smart Objects, Dumb Archives (SODA) DL model [2], functionalities traditionally associated with archives are pushed down into buckets, making the buckets smarter and the archives dumber. Some of a bucket’s responsibilities include: storing, tracking, and enforcing its terms and conditions; maintenance, display, and dissemination of its contents; and maintaining its event logs. The motivation for buckets came from previous experience in the design, implementation, and maintenance of NASA digital libraries. Users replied that while access to technical reports was desirable, they particularly wanted the experimental data, software, video, and other ancillary material. In response, we defined a digital object to capture and preserve arbitrary data objects and the relationships between them. Additionally, experience making the content accessible through other digital libraries and Webcrawlers led to making the information objects intelligent. We did not want the objects trapped inside our digital libraries, with the only method for discovery coming from our digital library interface.

The information object should be independent of the DL, capable of existing outside the digital library and transitioning to different digital libraries in the future. However, not assuming which digital library was used for discovery and access means buckets must be self-sufficient and perform their required tasks without digital library support. In our NASA digital library experience, data was partitioned by semantic or syntactic type: metadata in one location, PostScript files in another location, PDF files in still another location, and so on. Over time, different metadata formats were introduced, the number of file formats increased, and new information types (software, multimedia) were introduced.“Being in the DL” eventually represented so much DL jetsam—bits and pieces physically and logically strewn across the system.