How one of the world’s largest archives is managing the move from parchment to pixels

How one of the world’s largest archives is managing the move from parchment to pixels. David Clipsham. Blog. January 16 2015.
The UK National Archives is to permanently preserve the records of the UK government that have been selected for their historic value. Because there was no authoritative source of information regarding file formats they developed PRONOM, a registry of file formats and the applications required to open and read them, and DROID, a freely available open source tool to manage that data and information.There the approach to digital preservation, which they call parsimonious preservation, is essentially two principles:

1. Understand what you have got
2. Keep it safe

In addition, they have built an infrastructure with programs for virus scanning, file fixity checking to ensure that any digital object received has not been altered or corrupted, identifying the file type, and recording of metadata.

Digital Preservation Matters.