Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections

Listed here are selected resources that pertain to
• the assessment of digital formats
• efforts to provide gateways and/or listings of format documentation and transcoding tools
• aspects of other digital preservation activities that include recommendations relating to digital content in particular formats.

A separate resource page provides access to freely downloadable specifications for digital formats either directly from the Library of Congress or from standards organizations.

Resources related to particular digital formats will be found in individual Format Descriptions. Note that the format descriptions presented at this Web site in HTML are also available for download as XML documents.

View the Library of Congress disclaimer regarding external links  .

Recommendations for additional items are encouraged. [Contact]

Digital format sustainability: analyses and descriptions

DELOS, File Formats Typology and Registries for Digital Preservation (2004)
This project was sponsored by the European Commission and carried out at the Università degli Studi di Urbino. The 54-page document from 2004 categorizes formats, discusses "digital longevity," and suggests format-assessment criteria for use by archives.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20110721194942/http://www.dpc.delos.info/private/output/DELOS_WP6_d631_finalv2(5)_urbino.pdf . Via Internet Archive.

Denmark, the State and University Library and the Royal Library, Handling File Formats (2004)
Lars R. Clausen's document categorizes formats, identifies the aspects important for sustainability, and suggests strategies for preservation.
URL: http://netarkivet.dk/wp-content/uploads/FileFormats-2004.pdf

Diffuse Standards and Specifications List
The Diffuse project was originally sponsored by the European Commission and ran from 1 February 2000 until 31 January 2003. Its primary result, a valuable source for standards documents and specifications, including data representation, is no longer maintained or accessible at its former URL. Beginning in 2005, the Digital Curation Centre in the United Kingdom repurposed the information and remounted it as DCC Diffuse. However, DCC Diffuse has not been updated since 2009.
Original Diffuse.org URL: http://www.diffuse.org/standards.html
Via Internet Archive Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20030622190406/http://www.diffuse.org/
DCC Diffuse URL: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/standards/diffuse/

Digital Preservation Coalition, Digital Preservation Handbook
The handbook aims to provides an internationally authoritative and practical guide to the subject of managing digital resources over time and the issues in sustaining access to them. The handbook includes a section on media and formats.
URL: http://handbook.dpconline.org/
URL: http://handbook.dpconline.org/technical-solutions-and-tools/file-formats-and-standards

Leeds, University of, Survey and Assessment of Sources of Information on File Formats and Software Documentation
Report from the Representation and Rendering Project at the University of Leeds (UK, n.d., ca. 2003). Described the publicly available sources of information on file formats and software, with some comments on its quality and completeness. No longer online from the project or JISC. Link via Internet Archive.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20140707183621/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/FileFormatsreport.pdf

National Library of the Netherlands (KB), Evaluating File Formats for Long-term Preservation
The KB has developed a quantifiable file format risk assessment method, based on seven sustainability criteria that are assigned weights by importance. The KB observes consensus on the criteria but recognizes that the weights assigned to criteria must be guided by institutional policy. With this paper, the KB hopes to inspire other cultural heritage institutions to define their own quantifiable file format evaluation method.
URL: https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/KB_file_format_evaluation_method_27022008.pdf

PIN, Groupe Pérennisation des Informations Numériques
An initiative of Association Aristote and the French space agency (CNES) for long-term preservation of digital information. One area of activity is evaluating formats for preservation. Web site is entirely in French.
URL: http://pin.association-aristote.fr/doku.php/public/formats
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20060627063209/http://www.ssd.rl.ac.uk/ccsdsp2/mon04/methodology_for_format_evaluation.ppt [2004 presentation on format evaluation methodology. Via Internet Archive]
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20060627063157/http://www.ssd.rl.ac.uk/ccsdsp2/mon04/long_term_preservation_criteria.doc [Criteria for evaluating data formats in terms of their suitability for ensuring information long term preservation, C. Huc. 2004. Via Internet Archive.]

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Format registries: in production, under development

Global Digital Format Registry
An activity with initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to build a registry that "will maintain persistent, unambiguous bindings between public identifiers for digital formats and representation information for those formats." The GDFR activity merged into a new international activity, UDFR, based on the experience with GDFR and PRONOM. Data models and design documents are available.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20130113003423/http://www.gdfr.info/index.html
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20130206101347/http://www.gdfr.info/docs.html . GDFR design and architecture documents.
URL: http://www.udfr.org/
URL: http://hul.harvard.edu/gdfr/documents.html . Older documents are still (as of January 2014) available from Harvard University Libraries.

PRONOM Digital Format Database
From the Public Records Office of the United Kingdom, the PRONOM database provides information about file formats and the application software needed to open them.
URL: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/

Representation Information Registry Repository
A former activity with support from the UK's Digital Curation Centre and the CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval) project to build a registry that "curates OAIS reference model (ISO:14721:2002) defined Representation Information which is intended to add meaning to data and aid its long-term preservation." The intent was to build a repository designed to hold representation information interpreted more broadly than technical information about digital formats. Link now provided throught Internet Archive.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20070701221633/http://registry.dcc.ac.uk/omar/

Unified Digital Format Registry
The UDFR activity planned to build on the existing PRONOM registry to support requirements and use cases from GDFR. As of October 2014, this activity is dormant.
URL: http://www.udfr.org/
URL: https://bitbucket.org/udfr/main/wiki/Home

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Format registries: demonstration projects

FOCUS [Format Curation Service, a demonstration]
FOCUS was one element of a research project at the Institute for Advanced Computer Study, University of Maryland (UMIACS) funded by NDIIPP under the DIGARCH program. The intent was to demonstrate that a scalable and secure environment for a global digital format registry could be built using proven web technologies, such as LDAP and web services. The key functionality of FOCUS is to identify software tools for rendering, editing, converting, and validating the formats in the registry. The demonstration system is populated with some of the most common formats and applications and offers a validation service based on JHOVE.
URL: https://wiki.umiacs.umd.edu/adapt/index.php/Focus:Main

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Format registries: related tools

Magic Database File Formats (from magicdb.org)
One page on this site, which is no longer active online, was generated from a simple data base of 'standard" file formats, with links to documentation if available online. Also available from the magicdb.org site was a more extensive list of formats and the associated magic number 'database.' The text-format database was designed for use with a command line (Windows or DOS) tool for identifying files; the file identifier tool is distributed at no charge by Optima SC, Inc. No activity on the tool since 2009. Links to magicdb.org are now via Internet Archive.
URL: http://www.magicdb.org/stdfiles.html
URL: http://www.magicdb.org/magic.html
URL: http://www.magicdb.org/magic.db

NIST National Software Reference Library
From the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a project to collect software and to incorporate file profiles computed from this software into a reference data set that can be used by law enforcement, government, and industry to identify files found on a computer.
URL: http://www.nsrl.nist.gov

Wikipedia index to computer file formats
Wikipedia has information on many formats. These can be reached as a body using Wikipedia categories as an index.
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Computer_file_formats

File Signatures Table from Gary Kessler
A table of file signatures (aka "magic numbers"). The author declares it a work-in-progress. The compilers of this resource found that it had been updated within a month when checked in January 2008.
URL: http://www.garykessler.net/library/file_sigs.html

FILExt - The File Extension Source
FILExt is a database of file extensions and the various programs that use them.
URL: http://filext.com/

File-Extensions.org
A file extension resource.
URL: https://www.file-extensions.org

Wotsit.org
This site appears to have been abandoned in 2015. Described itself as a programmer's file and data format resource. This site contained information on hundreds of different file types, data types, hardware interface details and all sorts of other useful programming information; algorithms, source code, specifications, etc. Link now via Internet Archive
URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20150730114233/http://www.wotsit.org/

DotWhat!?
A file extension resource.
URL: http://dotwhat.net/

FileFormat.Info
From 2005 through 2010, the FileFormat.Info site offered useful information on many file types, including an online HTML version of the Encyclopedia of Graphical File Formats, 2nd Edition, 1996. FileFormat.Info states that the publisher O'Reilly has released the work under a Creative Commons/Attribution license. However, as of October 2012, much of the FileFormat.Info site was non-functional for a period. Hence additional links are provided here to an earlier version of the site through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
URL: http://www.fileformat.info/
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20110604124803/http://www.fileformat.info/ via Wayback Machine.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20101225044609/http://www.fileformat.info/format/cloud.htm. Cloud list of formats for which information is provided.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20101225064720/http://www.fileformat.info/resource/book/1565921615/index.htm. Text of Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats, 2nd Edition. EGFF resources for individual formats can be found through the "cloud" above.

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Lists of formats supported by archival institutions or projects

Library of Congress Recommended Format Statement
This statement shows hierarchies of the physical and technical characteristics of formats used for creative works, both analog and digital, which are intended to meet the needs of all concerned, maximizing the chances for survival and continued accessibility of creative content well into the future.
URL: //www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/index.html

U. S. National Archives Revised Format Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic Records – Tables of File Formats
Published as NARA 2014-04: Appendix A. Lists preferred and acceptable formats for transfer of content from government agencies to the National Archives. As of October 2014, the latest update was on March 3, 2014.
URL: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/transfer-guidance-tables.html

University of Michigan Library: Deep Blue Preservation and Format Support Policy
Provides description and summary table of three levels of service for University of Michigan Library's institutional digital repository (Deep Blue) and table of Registered Formats and Support Levels
URL: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/static/about/deepbluepreservation.html

Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA): Florida Digital Archive File Preservation Strategies by Format
Provides action plans for dealing with a selection of formats that the archive will attempt to preserve.
URL: http://fclaweb.fcla.edu/fda_format_landing_page
Also includes Table of FDA-supported File Formats and Recommended Data Formats for Preservation Purposes in the Florida Digital Archive. These lists categorize formats using "level of confidence" (high, medium, low) as a measure of suitability for long-term preservation.
URL: http://fclaweb.fcla.edu/node/795 Table of FDA-supported formats
URL: http://fclaweb.fcla.edu/uploads/recFormats.pdf Recommended Data Formats for Preservation Purposes in the Florida Digital Archive.

California Digital Library Digital File Format Recommendations
Recommendations for formats, with an emphasis on master formats for digitization.
URL: http://www.cdlib.org/gateways/docs/cdl_dffr.pdf

MIT DSpace statement concerning format support
From the DSpace implementation at MIT, a listing of formats categorized as supported, known, and unsupported.
URL: http://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=176372&p=1158986 . Click on Format Support under General Policies.

National Archives of Norway: Provisions concerning transfer of electronic records
Includes discussion of acceptable digital formats for different categories of digital content.
URL: http://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Public-Sector/Regulations/Transfer-of-electronic-records

Archivematica Format Policies
List of supported formats and associated preservation plans, from documentation for open-source Archivematica digital preservation system.
URL: https://wiki.archivematica.org/Format_policies

ProQuest (UMI Dissertation Publishing) Preparing Your Manuscript Guide
Thesis is expected to be in PDF. Guidelines include list of acceptable formats for multimedia files.
URL: http://media2.proquest.com/documents/UMI_PreparingYourManuscriptGuide.pdf

Dissecting the Digital Preservation Software Platform. Version 1.0 (RKS: 2009/4026)
The National Archives of Australia (NAA) strategy for digital preservation is to "convert proprietary file formats into open, fully-specified, standards-based formats, most of which are are XML-based." The document describing the software they have developed to support digital preservation includes a list of supported formats.
URL: http://www.naa.gov.au/Images/Digital-Preservation-Software-Platform-v1_tcm16-47139.pdf
URL: http://naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/preserve/e-preservation/at-naa/process/index.aspx

JISC Digital Media: Digital file formats
JISC Digital Media is an organization that helps the UK higher education sector use digital media effectively. JISC originally stood for Joint Information Systems Committee and was a government-funded agency. Now it is a non-profit charity. This resource includes an overview of criteria to guide format choice and discussion of common formats. Link via Internet Archive.
URL: http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20160101151358/http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/infokit/file_formats/digital-file-formats

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Formats for different content categories

Resources related to particular digital formats will be found in individual Format Descriptions.

Datasets and Related Formats
Includes preferred formats for subject or institutional repositories in the Research Data and eScience communities.
URL: http://data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/format/formats-table Guidance on file formats accepted by the UK Data Archive for deposited data.
URL: http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/advice/FileFormatTable Preferred formats for the Archaeology Data Service
URL: http://anrcs.ucanr.edu/isc/itg/Creating_a_Data_Management_Plan/Recommended_Archive_Formats/ Recommended archive formats for the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. This list also includes categories other than datasets including text, audio and video.
URL: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/deposit/ Includes format information on datasets as well as other information relevant to depositing data with ICPSR.
URL: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nssdc/submitting_data.html Information about submitting data to NASA's National Space Science Data Center including preferred file formats and documentation.
URL: http://avointiede.fi/documents/10864/12232/Research_data_file_formats_final_report.pdf/9458e063-babd-4359-940d-a501b93d3959?version=1.0 Report from Finland's Open Science and Research Initiative focused on digital preservation and availability of research data.

Alternative File Formats for Storing Master Images of Digitisation Projects
A study of alternative formats for storing master files of digitisation projects of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) took place in the context of reviewing the KB's storage strategy. The formats reviewed as alternatives to uncompressed TIFF were JPEG, JPEG 2000, PING, and TIFF with LZW compression. Note that a postscript was also published.
URL: https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/Alternative_File_Formats_for_Storing_Masters_2_1.pdf
Citation: Robèrt Gillesse, Judith Rog, and Astrid Verheusen (National Library of the Netherlands, 2008).
URL: https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/AlternativeFileFormatsMasterDigitisation_postScriptum.pdf Postscript

Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats, 2nd Edition
Includes reasonable overviews of many formats albeit lacking in the detail for certain types of digital archeology. Published as book with CD that included book text and many supplementary resources for individual formats.
Citation: James D. Murray and William vanRyper (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, 1996)..
URL: http://www.fileformat.info/resource/book/1565921615/index.htm. Online version of book text as published on CD. FileFormat.info states that the publication had been released under a Creative Commons/Attribution License by the publisher O'Reilly.Comments welcome.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20101225064720/http://www.fileformat.info/resource/book/1565921615/index.htm. Version of online copy from FileFormat.Info via Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, included because the FileFormat .Info site was not functional for a period during 2012.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20130509171320/http://netghost.narod.ru/gff/graphics/book.htm. Online version of book text as published on CD. Via Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
URL: http://web.archive.org/web/20130621004541/http://netghost.narod.ru/gff/graphics/formats.htm. Online version of resources for individual formats as published on CD. Via Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

Graphics File Formats FAQ (Part 3 of 4): Where to Get File Format Specifications
Web site created by James D. Murray that offers links to about 200 sites for graphics file formats. Intended as a mechanism for updating information in the printed Graphics File Formats, 2nd Edition. When consulted in April 2003, the last modified tag reported a date of "20Jan97."
URL: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/graphics/fileformats-faq/part3/preamble.html

Preserving Geospatial Data
Full title: Technology Watch Report: Preserving Geospatial Data, from the Digital Preservation Coalition in the UK, May 2009. Excellent, comprehensive overview of geospatial formats and their charateristics.
URL: http://www.dpconline.org/component/docman/doc_download/363-preserving-geospatial-data-by-guy-mcgarva-steve-morris-and-gred-greg-janee

Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership (GeoMAPP)
Documents produced by GeoMAPP include documents comprising analysis and recommendations on metadata, container formats, and archiving ESRI GeoDatabase content. Also available is a spreadsheet analysing geospatial formats:
URL: http://www.geomapp.net/docs/GIS_OAIS_Archival_Metadata_v1.0_FINAL_20110921.pdf
URL: http://www.geomapp.net/docs/ContentPackaging_v1.0_final_20111202.pdf
URL: http://www.geomapp.net/docs/Geodatabase_Report_v1.0_final_20111206.pdf
URL: http://www.geomapp.net/docs/GeoMAPP_Geospatial_data_file_formats_FINAL_20110701.xls
URL: GeoMAPP website

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
Lists from FGDC of standards developed or endorsed by FGDC for geospatial data and metadata:
URL: https://www.fgdc.gov/standards/
URL: https://www.fgdc.gov/standards/list

Geospatial Formats supported by FME
Web site associated with FME (Feature Manipulation Engine) tool from the Canadian company Safe Software. Both URLs below list the more-than-200 geospatial formats supported by the FME tool, together with explanatory information.
URL: https://www.safe.com/fme/formats-matrix/
URL: https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME_Desktop_Documentation/FME_ReadersWriters/Home.htm

Geospatial Formats supported by ENVI
Document including list of formats supported by Harris Geospatial's ENVI software
URL: http://www.harrisgeospatial.com/docs/SupportedFormats.html

Geospatial Formats supported by Geomatica
Document including list of formats supported by PCI Geomatics in Geomatica software
URL: http://www.pcigeomatics.com/pdf/GDBTechnology.pdf

CODECS Database
Web site associated with Video Inspector tool. Lists CODECs in order of use as recognized by the tool.
URL: http://www.codecsdb.com/

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Resources that include discussion of digital formats

Selecting Digital File Formats for Long-Term Preservation. General Study 11 Final Report, InterPARES2 (2007)
The paper offers a mainly qualitative review of documentation on the Web sites of twenty repositories and four multi-institutional collaborative groups which have well established ingest policies and/or procedures or guidelines for agencies transferring records.
URL: http://www.interpares.org/ip2/ip2_case_studies.cfm?study=35
URL: http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip2_file_formats(complete).pdf

Building an Electronics Records Archive at the National Archives and Records Administration: Recommendations for Initial Development (Pre-publication Draft, 2003)
Report of study by a committee under the auspices of the National Research Council of the National Academies; see especially the section titled "Data Types and Obsolescence," pp. 5-3 to 5-5.
URL: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309089476

eDAVID (Belgium)
eDavid, an activity that builds on research on preserving electronic records done for the city of Antwerp, has produced a handbook, Digital archiving: the new challenge?. Chapter 3 is about file formats.
URL: http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be/docs/digitalarchiving_manual.pdf
URL: http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be/eng/edavid.php

Dutch National Archives, From Digital Volatility to Digital Permanence: Preserving Email (2003)
From the Digital Preservation Testbed project of the Dutch National Archives. Discusses email in terms of authenticity (as an official record) and assesses the various preservation strategies that may be applied.
URL: http://en.nationaalarchief.nl/sites/default/files/docs/kennisbank/volatility-permanence-email-en.pdf

Dutch National Archives, From Digital Volatility to Digital Permanence: Preserving Spreadsheets (2003)
From the Digital Preservation Testbed project of the Dutch National Archives. Discusses spreadsheets in terms of authenticity (as an official record) and assesses the various preservation strategies that may be applied.
URL: http://en.nationaalarchief.nl/sites/default/files/docs/kennisbank/volatility-permanence-spreadsh-en.pdf

Dutch National Archives, From Digital Volatility to Digital Permanence: Preserving Databases (2003)
From the Digital Preservation Testbed project of the Dutch National Archives. Discusses databases in terms of authenticity (as an official record) and assesses the various preservation strategies that may be applied.
URL: http://en.nationaalarchief.nl/sites/default/files/docs/kennisbank/volatility-permanence-databases-en.pdf

Dutch National Archives, From Digital Volatility to Digital Permanence: Preserving Text Documents (2003)
From the Digital Preservation Testbed project of the Dutch National Archives. Discusses text documents in terms of authenticity (as an official record) and assesses the various preservation strategies that may be applied.
URL: http://en.nationaalarchief.nl/sites/default/files/docs/kennisbank/volatility-permanence-textdocs-en.pdf

JATS -- Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite
Originally from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), created with the intent of providing a common format in which publishers and archives can exchange journal content.
URL: http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/

NISO, A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Collections 3rd Edition, December 2007
A Recommended Practice document from NISO. Available as HTML and PDF. Objects Principle 1 (pages 28-50 of the PDF version) relates to choice of format for digital objects (collection items).
URL: http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/framework3.pdf (PDF)
URL: http://framework.niso.org/ (HTML)

Permanent pixels: Building blocks for the longevity of digital surrogates of historical photographs. René van Horik.
This report was written as a dissertation, defended on 1 November 2005 at Delft University of Technology, based on research from 2000-2004.
URL: http://repository.tudelft.nl/view/ir/uuid%3Aa6f87376-f084-4f33-bcfc-ced18c6c0fc4/

Preservation of Word Processing Documents. Barnes, Ian, Australian National University.
Analysis and recommendations on preserving word-processing documents by the developer of the Digital Scholar's Workbench. Includes strong recommendations for structured rather than visual formats, for open non-binary formats, and in particular for use of the DocBook XML standard.
URL: http://apsr.anu.edu.au/publications/preservation_of_word_processing_documents.html
URL: http://apsr.anu.edu.au/publications/word_processing_preservation.pdf
URL: http://apsr.anu.edu.au/word_processing/index.html

Preservation of TeX/LaTeX Documents . Barnes, Ian, Australian National University.
Analysis and recommendations on preserving Tex/LaTex documents by the developer of the Digital Scholar's Workbench. In 2006, no existing conversion tools that did not lose information were identified. The current recommendation is to keep the files in their original format.
URL: http://apsr.anu.edu.au/publications/LaTeX-preservation.pdf

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Best practice guidelines for particular classes of content

NASA's Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC)
Provides information for Data Providers, including "Best Practices for Preparing Environmental Data Sets to Share and Archive.
URL: http://daac.ornl.gov/PI/pi_info.shtml
URL: http://daac.ornl.gov/PI/BestPractices-2010.pdf

Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative
Developing guidelines for digitizing still images, including pictures and page images, and audio-visual materials. Collaborative effort across U.S. federal agencies engaged in digitization.
URL: http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/

Products and Services of the U.S. National Archives (NARA) Digitization Services Branch.
NARA's Digitization Services Branch has developed extensive documentation on their digitization approaches from a wide variety of source formats to digital form for different purposes (preservation masters; digital reproduction master; distribution copy). The second link below is to a table of source types, purposes (product categories), digitization products, and formats used for those products. Every entry in the table leads to more detailed information about format characteristics and digitization choices. The last link is a summary of the target formats currently used.
URL: http://www.archives.gov/preservation/products/
URL: http://www.archives.gov/preservation/products/definitions/copy-types.html
URL: http://www.archives.gov/preservation/products/definitions/formats.html

PDF Guidelines: Recommendations for the creation of PDF files for long-term preservation and access
Guidelines for creating PDF/A files for deposit to the e-Depot of the National Library of the Netherlands/Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB). Prepared in 2007. Relates to use of PDF/A-1, but the principles expressed are also applicable to later versions of PDF/A.
URL: https://www.kb.nl/sites/default/files/docs/pdf_guidelines.pdf

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Other lists of resources related to preserving digital content

PADI - Preserving Access to Digital Information
The PADI Web site was a comprehensive gateway to digital preservation resources developed by the National Library of Australia. No longer maintained, an archived resource.
URL: http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/
URL: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/10691

KB: Publications on digital preservation and digitization
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, has been a leader in digital preservation, in both research and practice.
URL: https://www.kb.nl/en/organisation/research-expertise/research-on-digitisation-and-digital-preservation/publications-on-digital-preservation-and-digitization