search

usnationalarchives / digital-preservation

NARA digital preservation file format risk analysis and preservation plans
Other
197 stars 16 forks source link

Plain-text preferred formats #32

Closed dangormanjr closed 3 years ago

dangormanjr commented 4 years ago

I noticed that .odt files are listed as a preferred text-based format, but other versions like .rtf and .txt aren't included. Why is that?

lljohnston commented 4 years ago

.txt is the extension - we do have ASCII identified as a Preferred format for textual records.

We have analyzed RTF as a low risk format to retain, but our appraisal group has not identified it as a Preferred or Acceptable format for transfers from agencies. We can ask someone from that group to explain the reasoning. We will follow up with an answer.

lljohnston commented 3 years ago

I have an answer from our agency guidance team. Their principles for identification of Preferred and Acceptable formats including avoiding, if possible, proprietary formats which are not open source and have no open accessible standards, as well as formats that federal agencies are not actively transferring. RTF falls under all 3 of those categories so is not considered Preferred or Acceptable.

There are some proprietary formats in the Transfer Guidance because of the sheer ubiquity of those formats, such as Microsoft Word .doc. The need to identify a version that is acceptable for transfer overrides its proprietary nature which would normally mean that it is excluded.

We have RTF in our Plans because we have received files in smallish amounts in Presidential records transfer.

dangormanjr commented 3 years ago

Thanks for explaining more about the criteria for file preservation.