title: Sharing, Using and Re-using Format Assessments
creators: Andrea Goethals Paul Wheatley Jay Gattuso Kevin L. De Vorsey Michael Day Kate Murray
abstract: Many cultural heritage institutions with digital collections have performed assessments of file formats to inform decision making for a wide range of activities. The development of digitization standards and transfer requirements for depositors, the selection of storage and access platforms, and preservation planning and the decisions to use emulation or migration as a preservation approach all benefit from the assessment of file formats for their appropriateness in these different contexts. This workshop will bring together several institutions who have created format assessments, together with institutions who already are or could potentially reuse this work to inform their own institutional policies and preservation planning. The workshop will start with short presentations to expose the assessment work that has been done, followed by a discussion of how they are being used, or could be used, and possibilities for more effectively sharing these resources across institutions for the benefit of the digital preservation community.