Archivformat

Archivformat is a term used in digital archiving to refer to a class of file formats used to store digital content and its metadata in a cohesive package. It is not a single standard but a category that includes container formats, packaging schemes, and archival metadata encodings designed to support long-term access, integrity, and authenticity.

Key characteristics include the ability to bundle multiple files into a single package, embedded or accompanying metadata, and mechanisms for integrity verification such as checksums or manifests. Archivformats are typically designed to be open, well-documented, and reusable across systems, with support for long-term preservation tasks like format migration and emulation.

Examples commonly encountered in archives include tar, zipped or compressed container formats (tar.gz, zip, 7z), disk images (ISO), and web archiving formats (WARC). Packaging standards like BagIt provide a simple, portable way to transfer digital content along with payload manifests. Related preservation standards include OAIS, PREMIS, and metadata schemas for preservation metadata.

Applications of Archivformat are widespread in national archives, libraries, museums, and research institutions, where they are used to store digital surrogates, datasets, and born-digital records. Challenges include software obsolescence, licensing, ensuring provenance, and the need for regular migrations and documentation to maintain readability over decades.