File Formats Assessments

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FileFormatsMainBlue.jpg File formats are a means of structuring information in a sensible way for storage, retrieval and use. There are a wealth of different formats supporting a range of data types, from specific instances to container formats able to store different types of data.

As discussed in their iPRES paper “Sustainability Assessments at the British Library: Formats, Frameworks and Findings”, the Digital Preservation Team at the British Library has undertaken file format assessments to capture knowledge about the gaps in current best practice, understanding and capability in working with specific file formats. The focus of each assessment is on capturing evidence-based preservation risks and the implications of institutional obsolescence which lead to problems maintaining the content over time.

The British Library’s assessments are being made available via this DPC wiki page in order to share their findings and facilitate engagement with the broader preservation community.

Feedback is always welcome. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email: DPT at the British Library

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Assessment Criteria

See the format assessment factors covered in each assessment.

Collaboration

The British Library, The Library of Congress, Harvard University Library and the Digital Preservation Coalition are beginning a new collaboration too coordinate and make available their file format assessments. This will grow the pool of assessments available, while avoiding duplication, increasing the quality, and minimising the effort of maintenance. As a first stage, these organisations are coordinating their next assessment work here.

Preservation Risk Assessments by Format Type


IMAGE FORMATS
Icon-TIFF.png Tagged Image File Format

A widely-supported raster format for images.

WhiteBorder100.jpg Icon-JP2.png JPEG 2000

A compression standard and coding system for images, created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group.

WhiteBorder100.jpg
 
DOCUMENT FORMATS
Icon-PDF.png Portable Document Format

A file format optimised for the consistent display of text and embedded images, regardless of platform.

WhiteBorder100.jpg Icon-EPUB.png EPUB

An open standard for electronic books (eBooks) and other content types published by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

WhiteBorder100.jpg Icon-JATS.png Journal Article Tag Suite

An XML-based mark-up standard for e-Journal content, based on the earlier NLM Archiving and Interchange DTD.

NEW!
 
GEOSPATIAL FORMATS
Icon-NTF.png National Transfer Format

A vector format standard (BS 7567) developed in the 1980s for the transfer of geospatial information, now mostly obsolete.

NEW!
WhiteBorder100.jpg Icon-GML comingsoon.png Geography Markup Language

Coming soon!

 
AUDIOVISUAL FORMATS
Icon-WAV comingsoon.png Waveform Audio File Format

Coming soon!

 
GENERIC FORMATS
Icon-XML.png Extensible Markup Language

A generic markup language for the encoding of text and data; specification maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).