Search For
Repositories
Tools
Reserve
Support
Instruction
Research
Contact
Resources
Policies
Who We Are
Visiting
From the Dean
Know the Libraries
Academics
These recommendations are designed to serve as a general guideline for file formats within the Archives and Special Collections. The Archives will accept all file formats; however, some formats are more sustainable and easier to preserve long term. The Archives ranks formats based on how comfortable we are with maintaining each format. These rankings are High, Moderate and Low.
High Preference indicates that the formats have the most support and the highest probability of long-term stability. The formats are typically openly documented and are not compressed (or have lossless data compression).
Moderate Preference formats do not meet the minimum requirements for long-term retention but come close and for practical reasons, may be necessary for long-term care. These formats are more likely to require migration in order to remain renderable.
Low Preference formats are not recommended or supported for long-term preservation. These files may be difficult to render or provide access to in the future.