File Formats 101: Tools & Resources
Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for Library of Congress Collections
- Includes information about digital content formats, including background information, sustainability factors, content categories, and format descriptions. http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/
PRONOM
- PRONOM is an online registry of technical information, including file formats, software products and other technical components required to support long-term access to electronic records and other digital objects of cultural, historical or business value.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/ - Digital Record Object Identification (DROID)
PRONOM also includes tools like DROID, which is a software tool developed for performing automated batch identification of file formats. It is the first in a planned series of tools under the umbrella of PRONOM.
http://droid.sourceforge.net
Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR)
- The Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR) will provide sustainable distributed services to store, discover, and deliver representation information about digital formats. To be released at the end of January 2008.
http://hul.harvard.edu/gdfr/
JSTOR Harvard Object Validation Environment (JHOVE)
- JHOVE provides functions to perform format-specific identification, validation, and characterization of digital objects.
http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/
Digital Curation Center (DCC)
- DCC offers many resources, including information on file formats and a digital curation manual for working with formats and the broader scope issues of digital archiving.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/curation-manual/
Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification (TRAC): Criteria and Checklist
- This is the revised edition of the Audit Checklist for the Certification of Trusted Digital Repositories, originally developed by RLG-NARA Digital Repository Certification Task Force.
http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=13&l2=58&l3=162&l4=91
Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA)
- The DRAMBORA toolkit facilitates internal audits by providing to assess a repository’s capabilities, weaknesses, and strengths. http://www.repositoryaudit.eu/
Florida Digital Archive (FDA)
- Includes file format information, background reports for deciding on action plans for all file formats, and current action plans. http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/formatInfo.htm
- Dark Archive in the Sunshine State (DAITSS)
DAITSS is a software tool for digital preservation repositories, providing repository functions of ingest, data management and dissemination, and the preservation functions of format normalization, mass format migration, and migration on request.
http://daitss.fcla.edu/wiki/AboutPage