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Standards

Limit to: File formats | Format registries | Format standards

The use of standards is one strategy which may be used to assist in preserving the integrity of and access to digital information. Adherence to standards can assist by facilitating the transfer of information between hardware and software platforms as technologies evolve. Use of standards can also help ensure best practice in the management of digital information. Resources which are encoded using open standards have a greater chance of remaining accessible after an extended period than resources encoded with proprietary standards (unless these standards are very widely used).

There are different levels of standards with varying degrees of authority. The Guidelines on Best practices for Using Electronic Information (DLM Forum, 1997) define the following three levels of standards:

  • De facto standards: these are standards that are commonly accepted by the marketplace; they are established by common practice or dominant market share.
  • Publicly available specifications (PAS): these standards are developed when "several leading firms on the market join together in a consortium to define an interface standard". For example, specifications produced by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
  • De jure standards: these are standards that are formally established by law, or by a recognised standards-setting body such as the International Standards Organisation (ISO).

In a study of fifteen institutions (A Strategic Policy Framework for Creating and Preserving Digital Collections, July 2001 update), including national libraries, museums and universities, all of the respondents emphasised the importance of using standards throughout the lifecycle of the digital resource. For example, the United Kingdom's Public Records Office (PRO) has an Electronic Records in Office Systems (EROS) Programme which recognises certain standards as approved data preservation formats. Through the use of standards the PRO "aims to reduce the frequency of data reformatting that may be required to migrate data through different standards and technology regimes" and therefore minimise the cost of data preservation.

However, another study (Digital Preservation Needs and Requirements in RLG Member Institutions, December 1998) found that out of 34 institutions creating digital materials through conversion only seven had adopted standard formats for preservation master files, and that there were a wide variety of formats present across the institutions.

A number of problems associated with using standards for preserving access to digital information have been noted. The eLib Standards Guidelines (October 1998) lists four of the main problems as being:

  • Several versions of a standard may be in use, with earlier versions no longer being compatible;
  • Suppliers may offer "value added" versions of standards in their implementations;
  • A standard that is not well specified may be differently implemented in software; or
  • Some standards may have more features than are likely to be used, resulting in different subsets being used in different implementations.

Jeff Rothenberg (Avoiding Technological Quicksand, January 1998) argues against standards as a long-term solution; however he concedes that "converting digital documents into standard forms, and migrating to new standards if necessary, may be a useful interim approach while a true long-term solution is being developed".

Recently, there appears to have been a move away from relying solely on standards to solve digital preservation problems. It has been recognised that the diversity of needs, the pressure for change which limits market support for long-term standards, and the difficulty in predicting future changes in technologies, all mean that we are likely to continue to see a plethora of standards of short-term applicability. Although the development of standards has been critical to interoperability and to automating processes, standards are likely to play a role in facilitating preservation rather than being a complete solution.

There are standards for the many different aspects of storing and accessing digital information, including standards for: interoperability, data format, resource identification, resource description, data archiving and records management. Following are some examples of different sorts of standards which are relevant to preserving access to digital information.

Interoperability standards

This type of standard allows communication between different systems, facilitating the discovery of and access to digital information. For example, ISO 23950 Information Retrieval Standard (equivalent to ANSI Z39.50) defines a standard way for two computers to communicate and share information. It has been designed to support resource discovery and information retrieval of full-text documents, bibliographic data, images and multimedia. The standard is based on client-server architecture and, being independent of specific systems, is fully operational over the Internet. The Z39.50 Profile for Access to Digital Collections, developed in 1995 by a working group convened by the Library of Congress, now forms the basis of a family of Z39.50 profiles addressing access to digital collections, the best-known of which is: The CIMI Profile: Z39.50 Application Profile for Cultural Heritage Information.

Resource encoding standards

These standards define formats for the different types of digital information. They include standards for page description formats (eg, postscript, PDF); graphics formats (eg, TIFF, GIF); structured information (eg, SGML); moving images and audio formats. Adherence to this type of standard allows data compatibility across a wide range of systems. Choice of standards will depend upon whether digital documents are to be preserved in a formatted form, a processable form or in both. A table of standard processable and standard formatted forms for a variety of categories of digital resources has been provided in Tony Hendley's report to the British Library, "Comparison of Methods & Costs of Digital Preservation". Increasingly, archiving agencies are looking to markup languages for the preservation of predominantly textual material (see, for example, SGML as a Framework for Digital Preservation and Access (1997) Washington: Commission on Preservation and Access.)

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) are examples of resource encoding standards for structured information. They are markup languages that "provide for the structuring and hypertext linking of document and database information in a vendor-neutral, machine-independent, and human-readable format" (The XML Cover Pages).

The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) specifications for XML describe it as "a subset of SGML". XML is designed to be easier for creators to use than full SGML, while still being interoperable with both SGML and HTML. A good source of information about XML is Frequently Asked Questions about the Extensible Markup Language, which is maintained by Peter Flynn on behalf of the W3C's XML Special Interest Group.

The potential for sorting collection items into categories of similar materials for batch preservation action is attractive, as is the encapsulation effect of mark-up languages that separates the content from the structure and formatting. While this is a big step forward (and XML promises to be applicable to many different format types) marking up documents to comply with standards is highly resource intensive.

Resource identification standards

A way of uniquely identifying digital resources is desirable to ensure long-term and reliable access to resources while they are available over the Internet (see Persistent identifiers on this site).

Resource description standards

Resource description standards can facilitate effective resource discovery. These include description standards such as AACR2, a set of rules used for describing library material, and the semantic aspects of Dublin Core, a descriptive metadata standard developed for resource description on the Internet. There are also a group of standards which relate to metadata syntax, such as: MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloguing), a descriptive metadata standard originally developed for bibliographic purposes; the Encoded Archival Description (EAD), used by archivists for encoding finding aids; and the syntax aspects of Dublin Core.

As different groups of creators and providers of digital information will have different metadata needs, one standard metadata set such as the Dublin Core is not going to be suitable for everyone. This is one of the reasons that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is currently involved in developing the Resource Description Framework (RDF). This framework will provide the infrastructure to support the coexistence of many different metadata sets, or "schemas", of which the Dublin Core will be one example.

Data archiving standards

The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model is a model for an archival system for the long-term preservation of and access to digital information. OAIS has been developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and is expected to be released as a draft ISO standard in the future. Projects investigating the use of the OAIS model include NEDLIB in Europe, CEDARS in the UK, and PANDORA in Australia.

Records management standards

Records management standards provide guidance on how to implement records management strategies, procedures and practices. The AS ISO 15489 series of standards (supersedes AS 4390 series) produced by Standards Australia are an example of records management standards. This series includes standards relating to the following aspects of records management: responsibilities, strategies, controls, storage, appraisal and disposal.

Text last updated: Sep 2000

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Articles

2003 RLG-CIMI Symposium : Ready to Wear : Metadata Standards to Suit Your Project
Research Libraries Group (Date Created: 29 Jul 2003)
This is a report of a forum sponsored by RLG (Research Libraries Group) and the CIMI Consortium held May 12-12, 2003. The forum discuess the major metadata standards.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObject.jsp?objid=0000070504&reqi
d=15060
aDORe: A Modular, Standards-Based Digital Object Repository
Balakireva, Luda; Bekaert, Jeroen; Liu, Xiaoming; Schwander, Thorsten; Van de Sompel, Herbert (Date Created: 24 Jun 2005)
Description from abstract - This paper describes the aDORe repository architecture designed and implemented for ingesting, storing, and accessing a vast collection of Digital Objects at the Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/5/514
Computer Journal, Vol. 48, no. 5, 2005. Subscription required for full text.
AONS II: Continuing the Trend Towards Preservation "software" nirvana
Pearson, David (Date Created: Oct 2007) (Australia)
This paper presented at IPRES 2007, reports on the AONS II project undertaken by the National Library of Australia in conjunction with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories.The AONS software tool allows users to automatically monitor the status of file formats in their repositories and receive notification of obsolescence risks.
http://ipres.las.ac.cn/pdf/David%20Pearson-AONS%20II_%20continuing%20t
he%20trend%20towards%20preservation%20software%20'Nirvana'%20-%20.pdf
Screenshots of presentation and paper available from the the IPRES2007 website. http://ipres.las.ac.cn/
AONS II: Continuing the Trend Towards Preservation Software 'Nirvana'
Pearson, David In: iPRES2007 - Special issue (Date Created: 25 Jan 2008) (Australia)
This paper was originally presented at iPRES 2007 in Beijing China. It reports on the AONS II project undertaken by the National Library of Australia in conjunction with the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories. The AONS software tool allows users to automatically monitor the status of file formats in their repositories and receive notification of obsolescence risks.
http://www.infotech.ac.cn/qikan/manage/wenzhang/2008-0229.pdf
New Technology for Library and Information Service, iPres2007 Special Issue, Vol1, 25 Jan 2008.
AONS System Documentation
Curtis, Joseph (Date Created: 29 Sep 2006) (Australia)
This is a technical document on the the system documentation for AONS (Automatic Obsolescence Notification System). AONS is a software system that provides automatic notification of digital objects in a repository that may become obsolescent by using preservation information about the file formats. The document covers the architecture, registry and repository interface, AONS core and database structure.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/aons_report.pdf
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Archival Data Format Requirements
Christensen, Steen S. (Date Created: Jul 2004) (Denmark)
This document discusses the requirements of the Netarkivet in terms of both file formats and metadata. The document outlines the basic requirements for storage formats that can be used for long term preservation. Different storage formats are then evaluated in relation to Netarkivet specifications and a recommendation for a suitable long term storage format is made.
http://netarkivet.dk/publikationer/Archival_format_requirements-2004.p
df
Archive With Care
Rees, Peter (Date Created: Jun 2005)
This article covers the problems of a lack of open format standards from the perspective of the research data recorded in ELNs (Electronic Laboratory Notebooks), in particular their use by the pharmaceutical industry. Although formats like PDF/A can solve some problems, there is still reliance on proprietary file formats used in analytical instruments and other scientific software.
http://www.scientific-computing.com/scwmayjun05archive.html
Issue 82 (June 2005), Scientific Computing World
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Historical Attributes of File Formats for Long Term Preservation of Scientific and Engineering Data in Digital Libraries
Barkstrom, Bruce R.; Folk, Mike (Date Created: 2002)
This paper was produced as part of the Investigating Scientific Data Management Applications with Electronic Records Project sponsored by NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). The paper discusses the characteristics of file formats that can be advantageous in the preservation and storage of scentific and engineering data. File formats are discussed in the context of archival storage and access, usability, data integrity and maintainability and durability.
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/NARA/Sci_Formats_and_Archiving.doc
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Automatic Exposure: Capturing Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images
Research Libraries Group (Date Created: Jan 2004) (United States of America)
This article explores a Research Libraries Group (RLG) initiative that seeks to enable cultural heritage institutions capture the data elements proposed by the draft standard, NISO Z39.87 Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images. This standard provides a set of data elements, essential to an institution’s ability to manage and preserve its digital images. Included in the article are ways cultural heritage institutions are dealing with the capture of technical metadata and gives examples of harvesting tools that have been employed by cultural heritage institutions world-wide.
http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/past/automaticexposure/ae_whitepa
per_2003.pdf
Automatic Format Identification Using Pronom and DROID. Digital Preservation Technical Paper No. 1
Brown, Adrian (Date Created: Oct 2005) (United Kingdom)
This technical paper describes DROID (Digital Record Object Identification), an open source software tool that performs automated identification of file formats.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/aboutapps/fileformat/pdf/automatic_
format_identification.pdf
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Automating Preservation : New Developments in the PRONOM Service
Brown, Adrian In: Research Libraries Group (RLG) (Date Created: 15 Apr 2005) (United Kingdom)
PRONOM 4 is due to be launched in June 2005. This article discusses the revisions and enhancements available in the new version, including technical registry enhancements, automatic file format identification and the development of PRONOM unique identifiers (PUI).
http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20571#article2
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Historical Best Practices for Digital Archiving: An Information Lifecycle Approach
Hodge, Gail In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jan 2000)
This report is based on a study commissioned by the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI), in March 1999 to highlight the importance of digital archiving (long-term storage, preservation and access to information that is "born digital"). Project managers from a selection of projects were surveyed about the methods they were using in their project regarding: Creation; Acquisition and Collection Development; Identification and Cataloguing; Storage; Preservation; Access.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january00/01hodge.html
Bits and Bites of Data Formats : Stainless Design for Digital Endurance
Aschenbrenner, Andreas In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: Feb 2004)
This paper analyses the use of XML as a preservation format, particularly in those areas which may be problematic. The article discusses the ideal design criteria for the development data types and then concentrates on the shortcomings or concerns of XML in preserving data formats.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObject.jsp?objid=0000070511&reqi
d=551
Building a Robust Knowledge Base for Digital Formats
Ockerbloom, John Mark (Date Created: 21 Apr 2004) (United States of America)
FRED (Format REgistry Demonstrator) is a proof-of-concept prototype format registry which is part of the Mellon-funded TOM (Typed Object Model) project. This is a brief overview of FRED and includes characteristics of the registry, how formats are described and future challenges.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:MS2-0fFViSkJ:www.diglib.org/forum
s/spring2004/powerpoint/ockerbloom0404.ppt+Building+a+Robust+Knowledge
+Base+for+Digital+Formats&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1
Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation : Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes
Council on Library and Information Resources and the Library of Congress (Date Created: Mar 2006) (United States of America)
This report, commissioned by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, assesses current standards and practices in capturing analog sound for digital preservation. The report is based on a meeting of audio experts held in January 2004. The report includes summaries of the meeting discussions and recommendations on practices and procedures for transferring analog discs and tapes. It also includes a 'road map' for analog to digital conversion.
ISBN: 1932326251
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub137abst.html
CLIR publication no. 137
Historical Collaboration between RLG and OCLC With Digital Archiving Initiatives
Bellinger, Meg; Dale, Robin In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: Dec 2001) (United States of America)
An interview with Robin Dale of the Research Libraries Group and Meg Bellinger of OCLC Digital & Preservation Resources, in which they discuss the collaboration of RLG and OCLC in digital archiving initiatives, including the joint preservation metadata intiative, characterisation of reliable digital archives and long-term digital archiving programs. Anticipated future collaborations and perceived obstacles to digital preservation are also noted.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObjectMain.jsp?fileid=0000070513
:000006283523&reqid=15040#interview
Historical Conversion & Document Formats : Backfile Conversion and Format Issues for Information Stored in Digital Archives
Hewlett Packard; Romany, Nancy (Date Created: 2002)
AIMM Industry Whitepaper on Records, Document and Enterprise Content Management for the Public Sector. First ed.
ISBN: 3936534020
http://h30046.www3.hp.com/uploads/whitepapers/conversion_formats_wp.pd
f
AIIM Industry Whitepaper vol. 2
Corporate Alzheimer's : Coping With Forgotten File Formats
Waters, John K. (Date Created: 04 Apr 2006)
This brief article describes the latest developments in XML based 'open file' formats that claim to free documents from the restrictions of proprietary software for long term access.
http://www.law.com/jsp/ltn/PubArticleFriendlyLTN.jsp?id=1144067962734
Historical DARE : A New Age in Academic Information Provision in the Netherlands
Van der Vaart, Lilian (Date Created: 01 Jul 2003) (Netherlands)
The DARE programme (Digital Academic Repositories), which runs from 2003-2006, was instigated in the Netherlands as a joint programme between all Dutch Universities, the National Library of the Netherlands, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research. The aim of DARE, is to “ enable universities to better fulfil their own role and responsibility in the preservation and accessibility of the academic information produced in their own institute.” This paper describes the processes and developments of the first stage of the programme (up to June 2003).
http://www.surffoundation.nl/download/Paper_EUNIS_2003.pdf
This paper was given at the 9th International Conference of European University Information Systems (EUNIS) in Amsterdam, 4 July, 2003
Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata : Final Report of the PREMIS Working Group
PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) Working Group (Date Created: May 2005) (United States of America)
In 2003, the OCLC and RLG established the PREMIS Working group of which this is the final 237 page report. The report explains and contextualises the data dictionary which is a set of core preservation metadata applicable to digital preservation. Included in the report are the data model, the PREMIS Data Dictionary version 1.0 and examples for describing various media.
http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-final.pdf
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Historical Database Preservation Issues
Verdegem, Remco (Date Created: 2003) (Netherlands)
This paper, based on the the work of the Digital Preservation Testbed, was presented at the ERPANET workshop on Long-term preservation of databases in Bern, Switzerland in April 2003. The progress in developing strategies for database preservation is discussed within the context of migration, emulation and in particular, XML conversions. XML, identified as an approach in its own right, is compared to alternate strategies. The Digital Preservation Testbed's XML conversion tool and schema is considered.
http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/bibliotheek/docs/longterm_preservat
ion_of_databases.pdf
Developing a Trusted Digital Repository: the OCLC Experience
Lawson, Dawn; Spies, Phyllis B (Date Created: Jan 2004) (United States of America)
This article focuses on the OCLC’s (Online Computer Library Centre) experience in developing a digital archive. The development of standards for digital archiving and preservation metadata with RLG (Research Libraries Group) in defining the main attributes of a trust digital repository is described, as are the main tools and functions of the archive including the harvest, ingest and dissemination of archived objects. The Connecticut State Library’s use of OCLC’s Web archiving tools is also discussed.
http://ninetta.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03055720410530960
Also available in PDF version and in VINE, Vol 34, No 1, 2004, pp. 27-32, ISSN 0305-5278 (Special Issue: Digital Preservation and Libraries. Part One).
Digital Negative (DNG)
Adobe Systems Inc. (Date Created: Oct 2004)
Adobe has announced a new public format for raw digital camera files, the Digital Negative (DNG) file format. DNG offers an open format for archiving proprietary raw files from a diverse range of cameras by different manufacturers, which has positive implications for their long-term preservation. Adobe has also launched a freely available software tool, the Adobe DNG converter, which can translate many of the proprietary files in use today into the new format. Both the Adobe DNG converter and the DNG file format specification are available for download.
http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/main.html
Digital Preservation : Architecture and Technology for Trusted Digital Repositories
Giarlo, Michael J.; Jantz, Ronald In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jun 2005)
This article discusses the importance of establishing and maintaining trust and authenticity throughout the lifecycle of records within academic digital repositories. It gives an overview of technologies for enabling permanence and trust such as Persistent Identifiers, PIDs and naming conventions. The digital preservation architecture at Rutgers University Libraries digital repository is used to demonstrate this approach.
10.1045/june2005-jantz
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june05/jantz/06jantz.html
Historical Digital Preservation : Problems and Prospects
Hedstrom, Margaret (Date Created: Mar 2001)
This paper provides an outline of the major issues that long-term preservation raises for digital libraries and describes the main technical strategies upon which digital preservation has up to now relied upon, identified as standards and migration. The author provides an assessment of emulation as a preservation strategy and notes other strategies such as 'print-to-paper', 'computer museums' and 'digital archaeology'. She also comments on some major operational models and research projects including the Open Archival Information Systems (OAIS) Reference Model, Project NEDLIM and the CEDARS Project. The article is published in issue no. 20 (March 2001) of Digital Libraries (Dijitaru toshokan).
http://www.dl.slis.tsukuba.ac.jp/DLjournal/No_20/1-hedstrom/1-hedstrom
.html
Digitizing Audio for the National Gallery of the Spoken Word and the African Online Digital Library: Working Paper
Michigan State University (Africa)
This paper outlines some of the key concepts in speech digitization and a working model for digitizing speech for archival purposes.
http://africandl.org/bestprac/audio/audio.html
Historical DoD-NARA Scanned Images Standards Conference
MacTavish, Sue In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Apr 1999) (United States of America) Reviewed by: DoD-NARA Scanned Images Standards Conference
This technical feature reviews the proceedings of a Scanned Images Standards Conference, sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The conference reviewed imaging standards and examined the status of selected imaging projects.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObjectMain.jsp?fileid=0000070519
:000006286814&reqid=15674#technical1
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DOI Handbook (Version 4 April 2004)
Paskin, Norman (Date Created: Jul 2003)
The official DOI handbook, containing detailed information regarding the use of DOIs, and their role as persistent identifiers. Also included are notes on the development of the DOI system, a short glossary, and procedures for registering as a DOI user.
http://www.doi.org/hb.html
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Historical Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Progress Report and Workplan for 2002
Dekkers, Makx ; Dublin Core Metadata Initiative; Weibel, Stuart L. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Feb 2002)
This report summarizes the accomplishments and changes that took place in the Initiative during 2001 and outlines the workplan for 2002.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/february02/weibel/02weibel.html
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E-Government and Digital Preservation
Dumortier, Jos
This paper was presented at the Workshop on E-Government: Legal, Technical and Pedagogical Aspects at Albarracín (Spain), 8-10th May 2003. The paper discusses digital signatures within the context of digital archiving. Digital signatures are used to authenticate the originator and the integrity of information. The article discusses the long term validation of digital signatures and the implications of this for emulation and migration preservation strategies.
http://www.unizar.es/derecho/fyd/lefis/documentos/Albareccin_JosDumort
ier.pdf
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Historical E-Journal Archive DTD Feasibility Study
Inera Incorporated (Date Created: 05 Dec 2001)
This report, commissioned by the Harvard University Library E-Journal Archiving Project under a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, provides recommendations for the development of a common SGML structure for representing the intellectual content of archived journal articles and examines the challenges to be faced in transforming such content. It is based on examination of DTDs from ten publishers and the experiences of organisations that have worked with multiple publishers and DTDs.
http://www.diglib.org/preserve/hadtdfs.pdf
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E-Science Curation Report : Data Curation for E-Science in the UK : an Audit to Establish Requirements for Future Curation and Provision
Lord, Philip; Macdonald, Alison (Date Created: 2003) (United Kingdom)
This report, prepared for the JISC Committee for the Support of Research (JCSR), endeavours to establish the current provision and future requirements for curation of digital primary research data generated within e-science in the UK. The report consists of strategic and policy level recommendations. Questionnaires and interviews were used to ascertain current provisions for data curation, in areas including such as repositories, libraries, funding, costs, preservation, and standards.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/e-ScienceReportFinal.pdf
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Historical Encoded Archival Description : An Introduction and Overview
Pitti, Daniel V. In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Nov 1999)
This article provides an overview and introduction to the emerging communication standard, Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november99/11pitti.html
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Historical Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information
Rothenberg, Jeff (Last Updated: 22 Feb 1999)
This paper is an expanded version of the article "Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Documents" that appeared in the January 1995 edition of Scientific American (Vol. 272, No. 1. pp 42-7). It discusses the fragility of digital material and strategies for preserving access.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/archives/ensuring.pdf
Establishing a Global Digital Format Registry
Abrams, Stephen L. (Date Created: 2005)
This article beings by discussing format dependencies in digital repository operations, including ingest, migration, emulation and Universal Virtual Computer (UVC) dependencies. The author then discusses the data model, the service model and the governance and business model of the Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR).
http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/library_trends/v054/54.1abrams.html
Library Trends, Vol. 54, no. 1 (2005)
Evaluating File Formats for Long Term Preservation
Rog, Judith; van Wijk, Caroline (Date Created: Feb 2008) (Netherlands)
This paper outlines the Koninklijke Biliotheek's recently developed file format risk assessment methodology for long term preservation. The paper discusses whether it is possible to obtain universal agreement on a methodology particularly with the added challenges of web archiving. The authors seek feedback from other institutions.
http://www.kb.nl/hrd/dd/dd_links_en_publicaties/publicaties/KB_file_fo
rmat_evaluation_method_27022008.pdf
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Guidelines for Computer File Types, Interchange Formats and Information Standards
Brown, David L. (Canada)
This document gives recommendations for preferred formats for various file types and exchange formats. The recommendations include digital audio, digital video, text documents, emails, geospatial data and databases. The recommendations are based on various considerations such as whether formats are based on international standards and are openly available. Although the recommendations were developed to help optimise interoperability of digital information between the government of Canada and Libraries and Archives Canada, the principles are also applicable to computer file and exchange formats generally.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/information-management/002/007002-3
017-e.html
Historical ICCC/IFIP Fourth International Conference on Electronic Publishing : Electronic Publishing in the Third Millennium
Kaliningrad State University/ICCC/IFIP (Date Created: Aug 2000) (Russia)
Abstracts available.
http://www.albertina.ru/elpub2000/
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Historical Integrating Metadata Schema Registries With Digital Preservation Systems To Support Interoperability: A Proposal
Day, Michael (Date Created: 2003)
A paper presented by Michael Day at the 2003 Dublin Core Conference in Seattle argued that metadata registries may assist in managing metadata in repositories and may also support the re-use and exchange of metadata and/or information packages. The paper describes the development of metadata schemas by national libraries, research initiatives, recordkeeping institutions and digitisation programs and notes that interoperability between these schemas is desirable. Day suggests that metadata registries may be a useful tool that provide authoritative information on schema and element specifications and inter-scheme mappings. They could possibly also support the re-use of metadata and the exchange of information packages between trusted repositories.
http://www.siderean.com/dc2003/101_paper38.pdf
Historical International Organisation for Standardisation : Organisation Internationale De Normalisation : ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11: Coding of Moving Pictures and Audio : MPEG-21 Overview v.5
MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) (Date Created: Oct 2002)
"MPEG-21 aims at defining a normative open framework for multimedia delivery and consumption for use by all the players in the delivery and consumption chain. This open framework will provide content creators, producers, distributors and service providers with equal opportunities in the MPEG-21 enabled open market. This will also be to the benefit of the content consumer providing them access to a large variety of content in an interoperable manner."
http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-21/mpeg-21.htm
JHOVE2 : a Next-Generation Architecture for Format-Aware Digital Object Preservation Formatting
Harvard University Library (Last Updated: 01 Jun 2006) (United States of America)
The paper discusses the scope of the JHOVE2 (JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment) project proposal. This project will seek to retain existing JHOVE functionality and refactor the existing architecture, support enhancements, increase the range of supported formats, and develop modules for supporting key preservation processes. Input from the JHOVE user community will be sought as part of the design phase. The proposal was submitted by Harvard University, Portico, and Stanford University to the Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) initiative.
http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/JHOVE2-proposal.doc
JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment (JHOVE)
Donnelly, Martin (Date Created: Mar 2006)
JHOVE is an open source framework for the identification, validation and characterisation of various file formats, including html. xml, gif, tiff, jpeg2000, and wave. The article looks at how formats are identified, validated and characterisated as well as system development, standards and legal factors. Also included are sample records.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/case-studies/jhove/case_study_jhove.pdf
DCC Case Studies and Interviews, ISSN 1749-8767
Large Scale Data Sharing in the Life Sciences : Data Standards, Incentives, Barriers and Funding Models : the Joint Data Standards Study
Bioinformatics Research Centre, University of Glasgow; Digital Archiving Consultancy; National e-Science Centre (Date Created: Aug 2005)
This report examines the data sharing practices in the large-scale life-sciences and environmental data resources. The study is sponsored by MRC, BBSRC, NERC, Wellcome Trust, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Department of Trade and Industry. The report includes recommendations on standards, tools, life cycle management, legal issues, core models for data sharing and case studies.
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Utilities/Documentrecord/index.htm?d=MRC002552
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Like Russian Dolls : Nesting Standards for Digital Preservation
Wabel, Gunter In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Jun 2003)
This article discusses three standards for digital preservation, the Open Archival Information System (OAIS), the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) and the NISO Data Dictionary - Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images. The article describes what the standards do and how they can be utilised, noting especially the hierarchical relationship of the three standards, such that the higher level one provides a framework for those below it.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObjectMain.jsp?fileid=0000070511
:000006279243&reqid=602#feature2
Linking Preservation Metadata and Collection Management Policies
Calanag, Maria Luisa; Sugimoto, Shigeo; Tabata, Koichi (Date Created: 2004)
This article focuses on the link between institutional policies and successful long term preservation of digital data. The study has found that in order to do this it is crucial to develop preservation guides that address the metadata granularity issues. The study highlighted a need for flexible approach when determining preservation metadata levels, since highly structured metadata can be set at a higher, collection level, while lower confidence in stability of digital data would require file level metadata. This approach leads to a concept of metadata encapsulated objects, which although representing primarily technical requirements, need also to be addressed at policy level in order to render successful preservation strategies.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/171/2004/00000023/00000002/a
rt00002
in Collection Building (0160-4953), Vol. 23, no. 2 (2004) pp 56-63.
Historical Lossy or Lossless? File Compression Strategies Discussion at ALA
Dale, Robin In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Feb 1999)
This 'technical feature' summarises discussions which took place at the American Library Association midwinter meeting in Philadelphia about lossy versus lossless file compression techniques. Six practitioners: Carl Fleischhauer, Louis Sharpe, III, Howard Besser, Peter Hirtle, Joy Paulson and Steven Puglia give their opinions on factors which affect the decision to use different compression techniques.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObjectMain.jsp?fileid=0000070519
:000006287498&reqid=15167#technical1
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Historical Managing Digital Collections: AHDS Policies, Standards and Practices.
Beagrie, N.; Greenstein, D.; Pressler, C. (Date Created: Dec 1998) (United Kingdom)
This publication, within the Managing Digital Collections series, is being revised to reflect changing technologies, emerging best practice, and experience. The AHDS has adopted a standards based approach to fulfilling its aims of preservation, access, consistency and interoperability and therefore standards form a major focus of this publication.
http://ahds.ac.uk/collections.doc
National Library Standards Activities
National Library of Australia (Regularly Updated) (Australia)
The library and information community has adopted a range of standards which facilitate the interchange of library data, which promote the interoperability of library systems, and which support the operation of national and international networks of libraries. This statement sets out the National Library of Australia's current standards activities, and the directions and priorities which it wishes to pursue in the medium term future.
http://www.nla.gov.au/services/standards.html
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Historical Next stage: moving from isolated digital collections to interoperable digital libraries
Besser, Howard In: First Monday (Date Created: 03 Jun 2002)
In this paper, Howard Besser of UCLA notes that many existing digital library developments are primarily collection based and that they often lack service or preservation components. He then discusses various ways in which we may be able to move from these isolated digital collections to a network of interoperable digital libraries. In doing so, he emphasises that libraries are not just collections but organisations that provide a variety of services (including their long-term stewardship over collections) and uphold ethical traditions (e.g. on privacy and equal access).
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_6/besser/
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OAI Rights White Paper : September 26 2003
Lagoze, Carl; Nelson, Michael; Van de Sompel, Herbert; Warner, Simeon (Date Created: 26 Aug 2003)
Instigated by the Open Archives Initiative and Project RoMEO, the OAI-rights white paper describes the scope and issues in OAI rights. The goal of OAI rights is to investigate and develop means of expressing rights about metadata and resources in the OAI framework. This paper is intended as a foundation for work aimed at incorporating structured rights expressions into the OAI-PMH. This work will be undertaken by a technical group called oai-rights, and will result in a set of OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) guidelines scheduled for release in second quarter 2004
http://www.openarchives.org/documents/OAIRightsWhitePaper.html
OAIS as a Reference Model for Repositories : an Evaluation
Allinson, Julie (Date Created: Jul 2006)
This draft for comment evaluates the applicability of OAIS across different types of repositories. The evaluation includes the OAIS functional model, adapting and conforming to OAIS, and measuring compliance. The author concludes that complaince to OAIS is achievable by various repositories due to its flexibility.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/publications/oais-evaluation-20060
7/Drs-OAIS-evaluation-0.5.pdf
PDF-A : a New Digital Preservation Format
LeFurgy, William G. (Date Created: May 2003) (United States of America)
Since 2002, a committee of government, business, and academic representatives has been exploring an approach to long-term preservation of text-based digital documents and working to establish an archival standard for Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). Known as PDF-A, the potential standard intends to specify a limited, stable subset of PDF that must remain valid for a number of years. PDF-A is designed to meet three basic requirements: the needs of document producers, document users and archivists, while excluding features that hinder archival viability. The committee is sponsored by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) and The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies (NPES).
http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/gov/newsletters/May2003.asp#digita
l
in Government Record News : the newsletter of the Government Records Section of the Society of American Archivists, May/June 2003
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PDF/A: Developing a File Format for Long-Term Preservation
LeFurgy, William G In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Dec 2003) (United States of America)
This article looks at current developments in the USA into the long-term preservation of text-based digital documents. A working group has prepared a draft preservation standard for Adobe’s Portable Format Document (PDF). Known as PDF/A, the standard “intends to specify the use of PDF in a manner that is specifically geared to long-term management and use. PDF/A would be ideally suited for documents whose content and appearance must remain stable over long periods of time”.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObjectMain.jsp?fileid=0000070519
:000006289350&reqid=15674#feature1
Preservation of Digital Objects
Galloway, Patricia (Date Created: 2003)
This article provides an overview of issues and international projects that have been undertaken in the area of digital preservation. It looks at practical examples of ongoing digital preservation; the roles of library, archives and museums in the preservation of digital objects; a summary of research on the preservation of digital objects since the year 2000; different record keeping standards; genre-specific preservation problems (such as web pages, databases); repository standards, preservation methods (such as emulation, migration and serial conversion); preservation metadata standards, as well as future directions for digital preservation.
In: Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST), Vol 38, 2004 pp. 549-590 (Chapter 11), ISSN 0066-4200, ISBN 1-57387-185-0
Preservation of TeX/LaTeX Documents
Barnes, Ian (Date Created: 21 Jul 2006)
TeX is a mathematical typesetting programme language and LaTeX is based on TeX. The report addresses the suitability of TeX/LaTeX as a preservation format. The author maintains that in the long term these documents should be converted to an XML format such as Doc Book XML with embedded MathML.
http://www.apsr.edu.au/publications/LaTeX-preservation.pdf
Preserving Digital Documents : Choices, Approaches and Standards
Lynch, Clifford (Date Created: Sep 2004)
This article is intended as an introduction to policy and curatorial issues in digital preservation. The article examines two approaches to preserving born digital objects- migration and emulation. Standards are also briefly canvassed.
http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_llj_v96n04/2004-40.pdf
Law Library Journal, Vol. 96, no. 4, Fall 2004, pp. 609-617, ISSN 0023-9283. Available online from AALL publications
PRONOM
National Archives (UK) (United Kingdom)
PRONOM is a database system that stores and provides information about file formats and the application software needed to open them. It stores detailed descriptions of software applications, including what file formats an application can read and write to, any dependencies that may exist in order to run the application
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/
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PRONOM : a Practical Online Compendium of File Formats
Darlington, Jeffrey In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Oct 2003) (United Kingdom)
PRONOM is a database established by the National Archives (UK) that stores and provides information on file formats and the software applications needed to read them. This article provides an overview of the purpose, content development strategies and future development plans for PRONOM. The latest version, the web-enabled PRONOM 3, is also described.
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/da/ViewObjectMain.jsp?fileid=0000070519
:000006287659&reqid=15674#feature2
Provision of Digital Preservation Metadata : a Role for ONIX?
Brindley, Gavin; Muir, Adrienne; Probets, Steve (Date Created: 2004)
ONIX is a metadata standard used in the publishing industry for data exchange. This article examines the suitability of ONIX metadata for digital preservation metadata requirements. The article describes the background to digital preservation before analysing whether ONIX could be integrated into and help populate the existing preservation metadata frameworks.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/rpsv/cw/mcb/00330337/v38n4/s3/p240
in Program : Electronic Library and Information Systems, ISSN 0033-0337, Vol. 38, issue 4, 2004, pp. 240-250.
Re-inventing the Wheel? Standards, Interoperability and Digital Cultural Content
Gill, Tony; Miller, Paul In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jan 2002)
This article focusses on the concept of interoperability for digital cultural content, the rise of multiple standards seeking to achieve wide usefulness, portability and longevity for such content, and the aim for agreement on a common framework of standards, supported by UKOLN, CIMI and Resource in hosting the International Seminar on National Digital Cultural Content Creation Strategies. Links to the meeting documents and an invitation to join the interoperability public mailing list are included.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january02/gill/01gill.html
Historical Report on the Sixth European Conference on Digital Libraries
Buchanan, George (Date Created: Oct 2002)
A report on the 6th European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL 2002), held in Rome, 15-18 September, 2002. A greater focus on the technical aspects of digital libraries is noted, with web archiving, architecture, standards and usability included as major topics.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october02/buchanan/10buchanan.html
Robust Technologies for Automated Ingestion and Long-term Preservation of Digital Information
JaJa, Joseph (Date Created: 2006)
Description from abstract - this is an overview of the DIGARCH project and report on a number of significant advances achieved thus far. In particular, we highlight our contributions to the development of a novel architecture for the Global Digital Format Registry, the design of a highly reliable and scalable deep archive, and the development of the underpinnings of a policy-driven management of preservation processes. Challenges and future plans are briefly outlined.
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1146598.1146674
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 151, Proceedings of the 2006 international conference on Digital government research. Available via subscription.
Role of format in Digital Preservation
Abrams, Stephen L. (Date Created: 2004)
The author argues that without a thorough understanding of the formats in which digital objects are encoded, long term preservation will be difficult. Within this context, the GDFR (Global Digital Format Registry) and JHOVE (JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment), projects are discussed as examples of services and systems providing support to long term preservation. The development of a GDFR where formats will be available from a central source is explored. JHOVE, a project to automate the identification and validation of file formats, is also discussed.
http://oberon.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03055720410530997
Also available in pdf version and in Vine. Digital Preservation and Libraries. Part Two. Vol. 34, no. 2, 2004. pp. 49-55. ISSN 0305-5728
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SDS Final Report
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia (Date Created: 2004) (United States of America)
This is the final report from the Supporting Digital Scholarship project at the University of Virginia. The Mellon Foundation-funded project’s goal was to support the creation and long-term maintenance of digital scholarly projects, with emphasis on cooperation between creators and the collectors to ensure its implementation. The report highlights issues and problem areas, including legal and policy matters, without necessarily providing all the solutions. Preservation policies are discussed with special detailed examination of ‘significant properties’, which identify the unique properties of digital works.
http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sds/SDS_AR_2003.pdf
Also available in .html - http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sds/SDS_AR_2003.html
Historical Standard for the Legal Deposit of Online Publications
Bergamin, Giovanni (Date Created: 4 Jun 1999)
Abstract in English; abstract in Italian available at: http://www.aib.it/aib/commiss/cnur/dliberga.htm
http://www.aib.it/aib/commiss/cnur/dleberga.htm
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Historical Standards for Electronic Publishing : An Overview
Bide, M. and Associates (Date Created: Aug 2000)
This report was commissioned by the NEDLIB project as a supplement to its Process Model for a Deposit System for Electronic Publications. The report, based on interviews with 14 European publishers, is intended to assist librarians to understand some of the issues in managing the deposit and preservation of electronic publications.
http://nedlib.kb.nl/results/e-publishingstandards.pdf
Standards Framework for Digital Library Programmes
Dunning,Alastair; Hollins, Paul; Johnston, Pete; Kelly, Brian; Phipps, Lawrie; Russell, Rosemary (Date Created: 2005) (United Kingdom)
This paper discusses some of the issues in using open standards and uses case studies to illustrate them. The author supports the use of open standards and proposes a 'layered' model for selection and use of these standards which involves the consideration of contextual, policy and compliance issues.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/ichim05/html/
Also available in MS WORD format.
Historical Standards, ever changing!
Payne, Geoff (Date Created: Jan 1999)
This paper describes some of the standards relevant to libraries dealing with digital information, including Z39.50, SGML and XML, and the Resource Description Framework (RDF).
http://www.csu.edu.au/special/online99/proceedings99/104a.htm
Standards-based Solution for the Accurate Transfer of Digital Assets
Bekaert, Jeroen ; Van de Sompel, Herbert In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Jun 2005) (United States of America)
This article describes the results of a collaboration between the Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the American Physical Society (APS) to produce a system for the transfer of digital content from the APS collection to LANL. It discusses the standards involved including: MPEG-21 Digital Item Declaration (MPEG-21 DID), MPEG-21 Digital Item Identification (MPEG-21 DII), the W3C XML Signature Syntax and Processing standard, and OAI-PMH and includes the schema in appendices.
10.1045/june2005-bekaert
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june05/bekaert/06bekaert.html
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Historical State of the Art and Practice in Digital Preservation
Lee, Kyong-Ho ; Lu, Richang ; McCrary, Victor ; Slattery, Oliver ; Tang, Xiao (Date Created: Jan 2002)
This paper published in the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 93-106) is a survey of ideas and practice in digital preservation as of late 2001. It first elaborates the various proposed strategies for digital preservation (including emulation and migration) before introducing a number of projects from Australia, Europe and North America. A final section recommends the development of preservation standards based on XML, and outlines some critical issues that still need to be resolved.
http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/jres/107/1/j71lee.pdf
Strategies for Managing Digital Content Formats
Williamson, Andrew (Date Created: Jun 2005)
This article discusses an open standards based approach to digital preservation. The author canvasses some of the problems inherent in using proprietary formats as opposed to open formats. A strategy for managing digital formats is outlined, including documentation, emulation, refreshment, migration, controlled storage and backup/recovery procedures.
http://hermia.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00242530510629515
Library Review, ISSN 0024-2535, vol. 54, no. 9 (2005)
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Historical Syntax for the Digital Object Identifier
National Information Standards Organization (NISO) (Date Created: 12 Dec 2000)
This National Information Standards Organization (NISO)-American National Standards Institute (ANSI) resource, defines the US national standard for the DOI persistent identification system.
http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-84-2000.pdf
ANSI/NISO Z39.84-2000
Three Manufacturers form PASS Group to Safeguard Files
Digital Photography Review (Date Created: 27 Sep 2004)
Konica Minolta, Fuji Film and Eastman Kodak have formed the Picture Archiving and Sharing Standard (PASS) Group.This press release outlines this important step in the development of a set of storage standards which will enable viewing of digital photos that are saved on CDs, DVDs and other media in the long term. Although initially aimed at the consumer market, the standard could have implications for all sectors.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0409/04092705pass_group.asp
Tomorrow's File Endings : On Archiving Principles and Archiving Formats
Uneson, Marcus (Date Created: 2005)
This paper discusses general digital archiving principles, such using open standards and text based formats, particularly in regard to the archiving of scientific and scholarly publications. The efficacy of using various file formats in an archival setting are also discussed. These formats include pdf, pdf-a, tex/latex and xml.
http://www.sciecom.org/sciecominfo/artiklar/uneson_05_02.shtml
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Towards a Global Digital Format Registry
Abrams, Stephen L; Seaman, David (Date Created: Aug 2003)
Based on a preliminary working group of members from the international library and archive sector, this paper traces the group’s efforts in investigating the establishment a new global format registry for the purposes of supporting the long-term preservation of digital materials. The authors claim that the digital format registry “will maintain persistent, unambiguous bindings between public identifiers for digital representation formats and the significant syntactic and semantic properties of those formats”. The paper covers areas such as the registry’s mission statement, data and service models, governance structure and business issues. The development of the registry service model is informed by the ANSI X3.285 Metamodel for the Management of Shareable Data, the OASIS ebXML Registry and IANA MIME media types
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/128e-Abrams_Seaman.pdf
This paper was given at the World Library and Information Congress: 69th IFLA General Conference and Council, 1-9 August, 2003 in Berlin.
Towards format repositories for web archives
Christensen, Niels H. (Date Created: Aug 2004) (Denmark)
This paper was presented at the International Web Archiving Workshop in 2004 and describes the challenges of file formats for web archives.
http://netarkivet.dk/publikationer/FormatRepositories-2004.pdf
Using OAIS for Digital Preservation
Higgins, Sarah (Date Created: Oct 2006)
This briefing paper includes information on the short term benefits and long term value of the OAIS reference model, roles and responsibilities and additional resources on the subject.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/briefing-papers/using-oais-for-curation/
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VERS: Building a Digital Record Heritage
Quenault, Howard (Date Created: Feb 2004) (Australia)
The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) is “a framework of standards, guidance and practical implementation projects centred around the goal of reliably and authentically archiving electronic records created or managed by the Victorian government”. The article provides an overview into the background and vision of the program, the VERS Centre of Excellence, developing the digital archive and future directions of the program.
http://www.vala.org.au/vala2004/2004pdfs/13Quena.PDF
Historical Web Technologies: The Development of Web Protocols and Formats
Kelly, Brian In: Exploit Interactive (Date Created: 10 Apr 1999)
This article reviews changing standards in data formats, addressing, transport and resource description on the World Wide Web.
http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/web/
in Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
What are Metadata Standards
Higgins, Sarah (Date Created: 30 Aug 2006)
This DCC standards watch paper is a good introduction to metadata. The article briefly describes the relationship between metadata and digital curation, defines what a metadata standard is, and gives examples of these standards. There is also an extensive resource list of standards related links.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/standards-watch/what-are-metadata-standa
rds/
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Historical 'Why Do We Need to Keep This in Print? It's on the Web ...': A Review of Electronic Archiving Issues and Problems
Warner, Dorothy (Date Created: Mar 2002) (United States of America)
This article from Progressive Librarian raises some issues surrounding archiving digital information and urges action by stakeholders to avoid loss. It also provides an overview of some standards, cost models and approaches to digital preservation being investigated by various projects.
http://libr.org/pl/19-20_Warner.html

Top

Books

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Historical Comparison of Methods & Costs of Digital Preservation
Hendley, Tony (Date Created: 1998)
British Library Research and Innovation Report 106. This report was commissioned as part of the British national strategy for digital information. It includes a decision model to assess ten categories of digital resources to determine the most appropriate method of long-term preservation for each; and a cost model for comparing the costs of the preferred methods of preservation for each category of digital resource.
ISSN: 1366-8218
ISBN: 0 7123 9713 2
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/tavistock/hendley/hendley.
html
May be purchased as a photocopy or microfiche from the British Thesis Service, British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshore, LS23 7BQ, UK.
Guidelines for Commonwealth information published in electronic formats
Commonwealth of Australia (Last Updated: Jan 2000) (Australia)