In collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Office of Information Service's Applied Research Division and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA) has significantly improved the capabilities of its file format registry, PRONOM, and its file format identification tool, DROID. TNA has issued a press release today highlighting these improvements (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/597.htm).
 
GTRI has supplied 50 new internal signatures that can be used for automatically and accurately identifying file formats. The use of internal signatures allows much more accurate identification of file formats than relying on the file extension. With the addition of these 50 internal signatures, GTRI has contributed a significant percentage of the nearly 400 internal signatures used in PRONOM and DROID. As the TNA press release indicates, "Positively identifying file formats is the first step to ensuring their long-term preservation, since it enables digital archivists to identify older file formats which may be in danger of obsolescence. It also allows them to develop migration strategies and the preservation tools needed to deal with them."
 
GTRI's work on file format identification is part of the collaborative research they are carrying out with NARA's Applied Research Division. Students working in the Applied Research Division's lab at the Allegany Ballistics Lab in Rocket Center, WV are providing file format specifications, sample files, file readers/viewers, and metadata extractors that are used by GTRI in developing and improving file format identification technology.
 

You can find more information about the GTRI/Applied Research Division collaboration here:
 
http://perpos.gtri.gatech.edu/
 
 
You can find more information about the Applied Research Division's work on our Facebook page: 
 
https://www.facebook.com/NARACAST
 
and at our Tech Tuesday blog:
 
http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?cat=52

Information about PRONOM can be found here:
 
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/Default.aspx
 
 
Information about DROID the free, open source tool can be found here:
 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/droid/
 
 
Mark Conrad
NARA Information Services/Applied Research
IA
The National Archives and Records Administration
Erma Ora Byrd Conference and Learning Center
Building 494 Second Floor
610 State Route 956
Rocket Center, WV  26726

Phone: 304-726-7820
Fax: 304-726-7802
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