This list of Digitally Endangered materials is a community effort to discover which digital materials are most at risk, as well as those which are relatively safe thanks to digital preservation. This effort is to raise awareness of the need to preserve digital materials, but also "celebrate great digital preservation endeavors as entries become less of a ‘concern,’ whilst still highlighting the need for efforts to safeguard those still considered ‘critically endangered.’" The Risk Classifications and categories are:
- Lower Risk: Digital materials that do not meet the requirements for other categories but where there is a distinct preservation requirement. Failure or removal of the preservation function would result in re-classification to one of the threatened categories.
- Vulnerable: Digital materials when the technical challenges to preservation are modest but responsibility for care is poorly understood, or where the responsible agencies are not meeting preservation needs.
- Endangered: Digital materials that face material technical challenges to preservation or responsibility for care is poorly understood, or where the responsible agencies are poorly equipped to meet preservation needs.
- Critically Endangered: Digital materials that face material technical challenges to preservation, there are no agencies responsible for them or those agencies are unwilling or unable to meet preservation needs.
- Practically Extinct: Digital materials that are inaccessible by most practical means and methods.
- Concern: Digital materials where there is a preservation concern but they have not yet been assessed by BitList.
