Added on 6 August 2021


Preserving Email ThumbPreserving Docs ThumbPreserving Databases ThumbPreserving Spreadsheets ThumbThe DPC has made the first four of a brand-new series of Data Type Technology Watch Guidance Notes available on general release today. The topics covered in the set are: documents, email, spreadsheets and databases.

Each of the Guidance Notes in the Data Type series is designed to provide a primer on the current state of community knowledge about types of data commonly encountered by those seeking to preserve digital holdings.

The notes document preservation challenges to be aware of and broadly applicable good practices that have been established as a result of many years of research, practical implementation, and consensus building. These are presented within the Guidance Notes as a starting point, along with additional resources for further exploration.

“We are really excited to see this new set of Guidance Notes coming out this month,” says Jenny Mitcham, co-editor of the series and Head of Good Practice and Standards for the DPC.

“This is the sort of practical and concise advice that I think the community will really welcome. It has been great to work with staff at Artefactual Systems to create this new set of Guidance Notes, and I’m really happy to see work carried out as part of our project with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority being made available to our Members.”

The Data Type Guidance Notes has been authored by staff at Artefactual Systems in collaboration with the Digital Preservation Coalition, and the notes have been developed in conjunction with the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

This and other Technology Watch Guidance Notes are ‘bite-sized’ papers that contain information about a problem, a solution, or a particular implementation of digital preservation and provide short briefings on advanced digital preservation topics.

Further Technology Watch Guidance Notes on a range of other digital preservation topics are planned for release in the coming months!

The Technology Watch publication series is just one of the ways the DPC supports the digital preservation community. An international charitable foundation and advocate for digital preservation, the Coalition helps its members around the world to deliver resilient long-term access to digital content and services through community engagement, targeted advocacy work, training and workforce development, capacity building, good practice and standards, and through good management and governance.

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