Gettin' SIG-y with it: a JHOVE Special Interest Group to enhance documentation and explain error messages
Georgia Moppett Julie Allen Lotte Wijsman Marin Rappard Micky Lindlar Remco van Veenendaal
The use of DP tools is an essential part of DP practice for most of us. We use them to identify, characterise and validate our collections; they give us necessary insights into what is going on ‘under the hood’ of our digital files. One of the most popular tools in digital preservation is JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment (JHOVE), an open source, extensible software framework for identification, validation, and characterisation. (Technical) maintenance and further development responsibilities lie with the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF).
While there is already documentation available on the OPF’s website in the form of release notes, user guides, and guides per module, there is also room for improvement. Notably, there has been a surge in interest within the past few years regarding the interpretation of JHOVE error and warning messages, particularly when confronted with malformed or invalid information objects. 
To address this burgeoning interest and cater to the needs of the digital preservation community, the establishment of a specialised interest group focusing on the use of JHOVE is proposed. The aim of the group is to develop, provide and maintain comprehensive documentation on interpreting JHOVE messages effectively and share our experiences and the possible issues we run into.
In this BoF session, community input is sought to shape the direction of the JHOVE Special Interest Group (SIG). What specific resources or initiatives do they envision from such a group? These insights will guide the development of tailored solutions to meet the community's evolving needs.
communications and advocacy for dp start 2 preserve