Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections

Introduction | Sustainability Factors | Content Categories | Format Descriptions | Contact
Format Descriptions >> Format Description Categories >> Browse Alphabetical List >> Format Descriptions as XML

Format Descriptions

 

Still Image

SVG_1_1
TIFF_6
All still image format descriptions

Sound

WAVE
MP3_FF
All sound format descriptions

Moving Image

MPEG-4_FF_2
AVI
All moving image format descriptions
   

Textual

PDF/A_family
DOCX/OOXML_2012
All text format descriptions

Web Archive

ARC_IA
WARC
All Web archive format descriptions

Datasets

DBF
HDF5
All dataset format descriptions
   

Geospatial

ESRI_shape
GeoPackage_1_0
All geospatial format descriptions

Email and PIM

MBOX
MSG
All email and PIM format descriptions

Design and 3D

STEP
X3D
All design and 3D format descriptions
   

Aggregate

RAR
ZIP
All aggregate format descriptions

Generic

ASF
RIFF
All generic format descriptions
   


About the format descriptions
The digital content format descriptions accessible here provide specific information about individual formats and their characteristics. Each description provides moderately detailed information and citations. Planned for inclusion are a wide variety of formats: file formats, file-format classes, bitstream structures and encodings, and the mechanisms used to compress files or bitstreams. Inclusion of a description for a format does not imply that the format is preferred or acceptable for Library of Congress collections. For more information, see the Recommended Formats Statement. Although presented here in HTML format, the descriptions are created in XML, and information about how to download the XML versions is presented here.

Descriptions are drafted and added to the site individually rather than on a scheduled basis. The compilers encourage persons with specialized knowledge to review and comment on the descriptions. Please use this contact form to provide comments.

These descriptions will not only serve as a resource for selection and acquisition at the Library but will also support the preservation of digital content as a resource for implementations of the Representation Network that is an element of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model.


Last updated 01/21/2022