Delivery: Checksums

For good digital archiving hygiene, checksums should be created for all files. They must be made by the respective facility (as in sound mixing or digital intermediate) from the master files.

They should be contained in the same folder as a given deliverable element, listed in either a .csv or Excel file.

This is not the time and place to debate the various flavors of checksums—MD5, SHA-1, SHA-512, etc. They all work and to that end we’re recommending that MD5 be the checksum of choice because of its smaller size (32 characters) and its modest CPU demands—read: speed of creation and verification.