Formats

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An organization may not have a choice as to the file format of the digital object it is receiving. However, wherever possible, an organization should work with creators to use formats that have preservation qualities and are more sustainable.

Regardless, an organization's policies need to address the issue of formats, particularly in the context of migration and the risks inherent to the migration process, including loss of significant properties, imperfect migration resulting in loss of objects and migrations which change the viewing context.

As is the case with media, an institution's policy should document the characteristics of archival formats, while the procedural level will document the specific format type.

Prioritize the relative importance of each format type and the resources allocated to supporting that format.

Identify formats that the institution will not support and ensure creators and depositors are informed of this.

• Based on the inventory of objects, identify file formats which are critical to the organization (based on the size of holdings).
• Prioritize the file formats based on estimated resources for the preservation of the format and their importance in the context of the collection.
• Develop a priority strategy for format support like that of MIT and make it widely available in organizational documentation.

Consult Checklists for creating a preservation policy under “Formats.”

Assess the situation in your institution! Go to Self-assessement zone: Activity 2: file format assessment

Recommended web links

Obsolescence: File Formats and Software from Cornell University Library. (file format issues).

The Graphics File Formats Page: is another multi-format resource page.

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