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Category: Communication

Description: A format is created, becomes widely used, and eventually fades away. File format obsolescence lies at the core of many digital preservation narratives, but does the field know what obsolescence looks like. This demonstration explores the issue of obsolescence with tools that can be used to see the rise and fall of formats in an institution’s collection and potentially distinguish a local extirpation from a mass extinction. By demonstrating the information about format endangerment that can be derived and the tools used to derived it, this demonstration aims to encourage a practice of sharing file format profiles of collections that can be used to better understand the lifecycles of file formats and inform better format management practices.