CD & DVD Digitisation and Preservation Standards

Optical-disc migration should be planned around preservation objectives, source characteristics, technical integrity and future accessibility.

Library of Congress guidance

The Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement identifies preferred and acceptable characteristics for digital audio and moving-image content. Its digital-preservation programme also highlights tools and metadata approaches supporting long-term management.

National Archives guidance

The National Archives identifies CDs and DVDs as media that present long-term preservation challenges and recommends assessing the need to reformat their content.

Open and sustainable outputs

Standards guidance should inform the workflow without implying that a commercial service or individual piece of hardware is itself certified by a standards body.

Verification

Outputs should be selected according to the original content and intended preservation use.

Documented workflows

QA, metadata and checksums provide evidence that the migration has been completed consistently.

Reference guidance: This article is informed by optical-media preservation guidance from the U.S. National Archives and the Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement. Where appropriate, the article distinguishes preservation guidance from practical extraction procedures.