Digital Image Data Connected via Open Web Standards
Preserving Digital Images: NARA's Approach
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has a strategy in place to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of digital still images. This strategy, known as the Digital Still Image Preservation Plan, focuses on selecting appropriate file formats and standards that maintain the integrity, quality, and usability of images for permanent archival.
Within NARA's Digital Preservation Framework for Digital Still Images, certain file formats are chosen for their technical characteristics and support. One such format is Portable Network Graphics (PNG). PNG is included due to its lossless compression, support for high-quality color resolution, and flexibility with color spaces and bit depth. PNG is recognized for its ability to maintain color accuracy and image clarity over time, making it viable for preservation of bit-mapped images.
The broader list of formats included in NARA's Digital Preservation Framework for Digital Still Images is not detailed here, but the reference to PNG as a preferred preservation format signals NARA's criteria: formats must be widely supported, lossless or minimally lossy, standardized, and capable of preserving image fidelity without proprietary restrictions.
Other file formats that fall under NARA's Digital Preservation Framework for Digital Still Images include Adobe PhotoDeluxe (.pdd), Computer Graphics Metafile Binary 1 and 2 (.cgm), CALS Compressed Bitmap (.cal, .ct1, .ct2), Canon RAW 1.0 and 2.0 (.crw and .cr2), and AV1 Image File Format 1.1 (.avif).
It's worth noting that some formats, such as CCITT T.6 Group 4 and T.4 compression (.tiff), are listed under both the Digital Still Image category and the other category in NARA's Digital Preservation Framework, indicating their applicability to both still images and other digital formats.
For more exhaustive details on all file formats covered by NARA's preservation framework specifically, one may need to consult NARA's official digital preservation documentation beyond the provided search excerpts.
In summary, the Digital Still Image Preservation Plan guides the selection and management of digital image files to ensure they remain accessible and authentic over time. NARA's framework for digital still image preservation includes a variety of file formats, each chosen for their technical advantages and adoption by archives.
Data-and-cloud-computing technology plays a crucial role in NARA's Digital Preservation Framework, as the choice of file formats is based on their technical characteristics and widespread support in the archiving community. The technology is essential in ensuring the long-term preservation of digital still images by providing formats that maintain image fidelity without proprietary restrictions.
