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I manage this Web site and the following Web sites: Leslie (Blakeley) Adkins - my oldest daughter

Lori Ann Blakeley (June 20, 1985 - May 4, 2005) - my middle daughter

Evan Blakeley- my youngest child

This is the nub and the cause of the question that this paper is addressing: What are the attributes of file formats that make them more of less suitable for the long-term preservation and use of data?

This paper is divided into two major sections. Section 2 provides background, including a framework for thinking about file formats and a discussion of the community and institutional forces that can influence decisions about formats. Section 3 describes the attributes of formats that we have identified.

It is perhaps useful to remember that in terms of long-term, persistent storage of digital data, we are at a very early stage of development compared with the experience of keeping text; cuneiform, clay tablets and written manuscripts on papyrus, parchment, and paper have a far longer history. Even with printed text, it has taken almost four hundred years to arrive at such text conventions as chapter headings, numbered sections, and even pagination. To the extent that textual formats provide any indication of what we may expect for data formats for binary data, it would seem reasonable to expect considerable variation within a slowly varying evolution of “generally accepted practice”.

- "Attributes of File Formats for Long-Term Preservation of Scientific and Engineering Data in Digital Libraries," Mike Folk and Bruce R. Barkstrom, May 2003. http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/NARA/Sci_Formats_and_Archiving.doc

Directory: http://www.larryblakeley.com/Articles/storage_archives_preservation/

File Name: mike_folk_bruce_barkstrom200305.pdf

Post Date: March 20, 2005 at 7:30 AM CST; 1330 GMT