Secondary adoption of technology standards: The case of PREMIS

While archival scholars have identified some of the most important steps for deciding to use and implement metadata standards in archives, very little systematic empirical investigation within the archival science literature regards either how implementation processes actually unfold or the factors affecting implementation. This article analyzes the organizational factors and processes that come into play during implementation of metadata standards, using PREservation metadata: implementation strategies (PREMIS) as an exemplar. Adapting a theoretical framework for secondary adoption of technologies from Gallivan (Database Adv Inf Syst 32(3):51, 2001), the authors apply their model to the PREMIS technology standard and investigate PREMIS implementation by projects/programs on the Library of Congress PREMIS Implementation Registry. Using data from a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews, the authors develop a model for the secondary adoption of PREMIS and outline implications for the secondary adoption of technology standards based on the results of this study.