Byte-by-byte file format composition: Methodologies for digital conservation

Let's face the fact that we now preserve digital files as part of our ongoing mission as archivists. In the analogue era, we understood our objects down to the chemical level and we developed preservation plans to match our knowledge of the objects themselves and the care they needed for long-term sustainability. Today we must understand the construction of our digital files down to the individual bytes in order to develop the best preservation policies around their needs. This workshop teaches participants a methodology for manual file deconstruction (byte-sequences at a time) that matches file format specifications with hex editors in a software-free computing environment. Such evaluation of file format construction ensures that the archive understands the dependencies of individual files, the realities of embedded metadata, and how to troubleshoot files when problems arise. The workshop serves as a mechanism to give practitioners skills to work outside of automated software when needed, but also the knowledge to understand exactly what automated metadata extraction software is doing (supporting improved use and interpretation of extracted output).