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The Bit List of Digitally Endangered Species

Endangered species are not confined to the animal kingdom, as the BitList of Digitally Endangered Species reminds us. Since its feature in the 12-07-2018 Scout Report, the resource's Digital Preservation Coalition has released a second edition, "The BitList 2019." Have you ever wondered about the life expectancy of various forms of digital media? The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) curates a list of digitally endangered species, which is reviewed on an annual basis and is made public via this website. The BitList Jury, which is composed of members from the "worldwide digital preservation community," assesses digital materials and formats of concern and includes their findings in varying categories listed here. The most recent revision was completed in November 2019. At the page linked above, readers can download the full report or browse summaries of its findings. Risk classifications are broken down into lower risk (currently containing no digital materials), vulnerable (cloud storage and published research papers, to name a few), endangered (for example, "digital materials in museums and galleries,"), critically endangered (look out for Adobe Flash and Family Records), and practically extinct (pre-WWW data and bulletin board services makes the list for the second year in a row). There is also a category for digital materials of concern that the BitList Jury will review in the future. Each risk classification category includes examples of the concerned digital media and reasoning for being concerned. For more detailed information about each of these risk classifications, readers should peruse the detailed BitList report mentioned previously. Readers wishing to delve further into digital preservation (particularly if concerned about their organization's current digital preservation plan) should check out the materials listed on the Knowledge Base page of the DPC's full website.
Archived Scout Publication URL
Scout Publication
Classification
GEM Subject
Language
Date of Scout Publication
May 15th, 2020
Date Of Record Creation
December 3rd, 2018 at 4:13pm
Date Of Record Release
December 4th, 2018 at 12:24pm
Resource URL Clicks
218
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