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The UK's V3 news site reports that the Vatican library considers open source file formats to be the only reliable way for humanity to preserve its history in the digital age.
Vatican Library CIO Luciano Ammenti said that, in order for the manuscripts to be readable, the Vatican Library opted for open source tools that do not require proprietary platforms, such as Microsoft Office, to be read.
"We save it as a picture as it's longer life than a file. You don't rely on PowerPoint or Word. In 50 years they can still just look at it," he said.
"Normally people try to use the TIFF format [when archiving]. This has several problems. It's not open source and it doesn't update. The last time was in 1998.
"On top of this it's 32-bit and not ready for 3D imaging, which limits the information it can preserve - what the script's made of etc. So instead we use the FITS format. FITS is open source, 64-bit, 3D ready and updated regularly. It gives all the information you need on the image."
What formats have you found best for archiving? Which have given you problems?
(Score: 3, Informative) by mtrycz on Friday May 08 2015, @07:04PM
Some poeple in this thread looks like they are missing some points, so I thought I'd share some of my thoughts. I'm building a digital library at work, and while the main focus is research papers, it will contain thousands (at some point probably millions) pages of digitized works. Also, that's my favourite part.
First of all, you think long-term. "Will this work be accessible in 50 years?", "how can I ensure that it actually *is* accessible in 50 years?".
Most people are probably not familiar with the requirements of a digital archive of this kind. The Vatican Library contains lots of works that are hand written, so let's stick with this for now. These works are digitized with modern high-end digital camera fixed above the workspace. You shoot photographs as you turn the pages. Unlike a photocopier that you use in office, this minimizes contact (hence damage) to the works.
Now, modern digital cameras have a higher dynamic range than your monitor (8bit per channel = red, green, blue): some have as much as double that, and by transforming the raw images into TIFF, you discard that extra information. Now, 32bit is perfectly sufficient for your modern monitor, but we don't know if in 50 years we'll have 64bit monitors? Who can tell. Discarding the extra bits just won't make sense.
Now for the 3D. This is fucking awesome. Take a work like this:
http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Borg.mess.1/0001/thumbs?sid=c3930b52306a29d73c83868284dd6697#current_page [vatlib.it]
(I can't find the "reactive" viewer right now, I know they have one)
The depth here certainly matters. Having depth would give you a better sensation of the work. Also, they could start scanning statues, which is just awesome.
Being not an open format, you can't just upgrade TIFF to your needs, nor can you push for an update. Standards are great, but they still need to be updated from time to time (HTML5?). Also, an open format needs to have an open source implementations in a quantity of languages and platforms. They are just future proofing they work. It's not like file formats don't die.
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(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday May 08 2015, @07:26PM
HTML5 is no standard. It is a moving target mislabelled as standard.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Friday May 08 2015, @07:41PM
THe point being, that HTML5 is bringing some much needed updates. We'd be stuck with flash without it.
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(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @07:55AM
What the fucking bollocks are you gibbering about?
http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/tifftags/bitspersample.html
http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/tifftags/sampleformat.html
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(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:56AM
If it handles 64bit info, I stand corrected.
The other points hold, tho.
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