[jats-list] Library of Congress Recommended Format Specifications Review

["Bausenbach, Ardie abau@xxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Library of Congress is once again calling for input as it looks forward to
the upcoming review and revision of the Recommended Formats Statement
(https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rfs/ ).  In April, the teams of
experts charged with maintaining, improving and ensuring the accuracy of the
Statement will begin the annual process of examining the Statement and the
creative works represented in it, to ensure that it reflects correctly the
technical characteristics which best encourage preservation and long-term
access.  Given the interest and the feedback received over the past few years
since the Statement was first issued in 2014, we at the Library of Congress
feel that the Statement could benefit this time around by focusing the review
and revision process on a few key areas.
The first of these is the metadata which is so crucial to preservation and
access.  This has long been an important part of the Statement, but we are
aware that it can sometimes be overshadowed by questions of file formats.
This year we plan on taking a more focused look at options for metadata,
including the work of the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative
(FADGI) (http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/) to determine what might be
applicable to the Recommended Formats Statement.  Similarly, work by the
Library of Congress on the archiving of podcasts has raised some interesting
questions about the metadata used for this particular and important type of
sound recording, which potentially might be included in the Statement as well.
Taking a closer look at metadata across the creative categories has the
potential to better identify metadata or even metadata schemas which could
prove very valuable for preservation and long-term access and should be
included in the upcoming version of the Recommended Formats Statement.
This is not to exclude the examination of other aspects of the Statement.  As
this is the first year in which Websites have been included, we are very
interested in reviewing the first iteration and determining what holds up and
what should be changed - and the Library would very much like to get feedback
from external stakeholders in the web archiving community on this as well.
Likewise, we will be asking about how best to ensure that, when it comes to
Software and Electronic Gaming and Learning, we are very clear on the
preference of source code and of direct file submission.  If this is not
absolutely clear, we need to know.
So, the Library of Congress requests that anyone with input, comments or
feedback, either on the topics above or on any aspect of the Recommended
Formats Statement, including on ways in which to make it more user friendly,
please share that with us by March 31, through one of the e-mail contacts
listed on the Recommended Formats Statement website or through the e-mail
address listed below.
For more information, please contact Ted Westervelt
[thwe@xxxxxxx<mailto:thwe@xxxxxxx>]
(Please excuse cross-posting)