Preservation standards: ACES, TDR, OAIS, FADGI and NDSA

Our industry has several standardized guidelines on how to approach preservation and archive of our digital assets. The most significant preservation requirements are listed below:

• Academy Color Encoding System (ACES, SMPTE 2065) – ACES has been used not only in digital productions to manage color and maintain color space information, but also in digital restorations. See also ACESCentral.com.
• Trusted Digital Repository (TDR, ISO 16363) – The TDR is a multi-point auditing process, that can include certification that demonstrates that a digital infrastructure can support long-term preservation, and help organizations improve their approach. TDR uses OAIS  to determine if assets are meeting preservation standards.
• Open Archival Information System Reference Model (OAIS, ISO 14721) – OAIS is used across libraries and industries as a set of guidelines for how best to preserve data. OAIS is particularly helpful in helping set up data models for assets and metadata for long-term preservation.

• Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) — FADGI is a collaborative effort started in 2007 by federal agencies to articulate common sustainable practices and guidelines for optimal digitization, including specs for capture, primarily focused on still images.Two working groups study issues specific to two major areas, Still Image and Audio-Visual. Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative provides guidelines for optimal digitization, including specs for capture, primarily focused on still images. They have an audio-visual working group.
• NDSA levels of Preservation — A helpful guide to increasing levels of care of digital assets in areas of storage, control, metadata, integrity, and content.