The Library of Congress has reorganized its site on file format sustainability and given it a new URL. (The old one redirects there.) A blog entry discusses the change. Relationships among formats are a big part of the site. It’s significant, for instance, that the MP3 encoding and the de facto MP3 file format get separate entries.
My reactions are mixed. When you click “Format Descriptions” on the main page, you get a page titled “Format Description Categories.” The nesting description at the top says you’re in “Format Descriptions as XML.” Eight categories are listed, and two formats plus “All xxx format descriptions” are listed under each category. There’s no obvious reason why those two formats get special prominence, or what the page has to do with XML.
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Flash in the Library of Congress’s online archives
Everybody recognizes that Adobe Flash is on the way out. It takes effort to convert existing websites, though, and some sites aren’t maintained, so it won’t disappear from the Web in the next few decades.
When it’s minor or abandoned sites, it doesn’t matter so much, but even the Library of Congress has the issue. Its National Jukebox currently requires a browser with Flash enabled to be useful. Turning on Flash for reliable sites such as the Library of Congress should be safe, at least as long as those sites don’t include third-party ads from dubious sources. Not everyone has that option, though. If you’re using iOS, you’re stuck.
I came across the National Jukebox while doing research for my book project Yesterday’s Songs Transformed, and it’s frustrating that I can’t currently use it without taking steps which I’d rather avoid. The good news is that this is a temporary situation and work is already underway to eliminate the Flash dependency. David Sager of the National Jukebox Team replied to my email inquiry:
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Tagged archiving, Flash, Library of Congress