File Formats Considerations

Recommended Formats Statement (Preservation, Library of Congress).

http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/

Recommended Formats Statement identifies hierarchies of the physical and technical characteristics of creative formats, both analog and digital, which will best meet the needs of all concerned, maximizing the chances for survival and continued accessibility of creative content well into the future.

Guidelines on File Formats for Transferring Information Resources of Enduring Value (Library and Archives Canada)

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/government-information-resources/guidelines/Documents/file-formats-irev.pdf

This PDF provides a list of recommended file formats to reliably transfer and store a variety of media types. Formats are grouped by type of media and then ranked within each section.

 

Rog, J., & van Wijk, C. (n.d.). Evaluating File Formats for Long-term Preservation.  The Hague, The Netherlands: National Library of the Netherlands. Retrieved from https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/KB_file_format_evaluation_method_27022008.pdf

In this paper, the authors examine the National Library of the Netherlands in order to evaluate several different file formats for archiving collections that contain different media types.

TOOL

Bulk Extractor – ForensicsWiki
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Bulk_extractor

This webpage includes detailed information about the computer forensics tool bulk_extractor, including file formats produced, how to use it for archiving needs, and instructions on how to download and use it.

REPORT

Whibley, S. (2016). WAV Format Preservation Assessment. British Library. Retrieved from http://wiki.dpconline.org/images/4/46/WAV_Assessment_v1.0.pdf

This document provides a high level, non-collection specific assessment of the Waveform Audio File Format (WAV, WAVE) with regard to preservation risks and the practicalities of preserving data in this format.

ARTICLE

van der Knijff, J. (2011). JPEG 2000 for Long-term Preservation: JP2 as a Preservation Format. D-Lib Magazine, 17(5/6). http://doi.org/10.1045/may2011-vanderknijff

This article explores the image file format JPEG in regards to its long-term archive abilities.