Riksarkivet (the Swedish National Archive) and Packed, together with veraPDF and EasyInnova, were invited to the conference to arrange a course about formats for preservation on the 15th of May. The framework of the course was based on the work done in Riksarkivet’s research and development program ArkivE 2.0 — fundamental principles for selection of format — which within the PREFORMA project was applied.
The participants were introduced to an abstract and a generic overview of the meaning of “format” and digital preservation. Within that framework the value and importance of a Conformance Checker and what makes a format appropriate in a specific user case was explored. The course covered technical, legal and archival challenges facing those who work with digital preservation and handed the task of recommending and selecting “preservation formats”.
A demonstration of the difference between file identification and conformance checking provided the participants with a much appreciated practical connection to the theoretical presentation. A more concrete and detailed view of formats were also given through the presentations of veraPDF on PDF/A, and EasyInnova on TIFF and TI/A.
The course had 12 pre-registered participants (mainly librarians, academics, photographers and digitisation companies), of which 11 attended and 10 gave their evaluation through the IS&T provided feedback form. Background of the participants included the Swedish Media Conversion Center (formally part of Riksarkivet), Latvian National Library, Dutch City of Leiden Heritage Network and ancestry.com. The overall feedback was very positive.
