6.4.3 Motivating Factors and Timing

6.4.3.1   Though the wise choice of standard formats, and an observance of industry practices will delay the eventuality, the day will come where it will be necessary to undertake a preservation action of some type which will be needed to maintain access to the audio content stored. The issue for sound archivists concerned with their digital content will be determining when to undertake that step and what precisely to do.

6.4.3.2   A number of initiatives are being developed to help support this need. These include the Global Digital Format Registry (GDFR http://hul.harvard.edu/gdfr/), which exists to support “the effective use, interchange, and preservation of all digitally-encoded content.” Other services provide recommendations about suitable format, such as those provided by the Library of Congress (US) or The National Archives (UK).

6.4.3.3   The factors which will motivate a sound archivist to undertake some sort of preservation action will be the recognition that new software no longer supports the old format, and the industry as a whole moving to select a new format. Knowledge of the events that herald change comes from expert understanding of the technology, the industry and the market and sound archivists are well advised to take heed of the recommendations services such as those noted above.

6.4.3.4  Software and services under development, such as the Automatic Obsolescence Notification System (AONS), will provide advice to collection managers on when changes have occurred in the market requiring action (https://wiki.nla.gov.au/display/APSR/AONS+II+Documentation). The implementation of such services will occur in parallel with the development of the GDFR.