Library of Congress Recommended Format Specifications: Encouraging Preservation Without Discouraging Creation

The Library of Congress has a fundamental commitment to acquiring, preserving and making accessible in the long term the creative output of the nation and the world. The Library has devised the Recommended Format Specifications to enable it to identify what formats will most easily lend themselves to preservation and longterm access, especially with regard to digital formats. The Library is doing this to provide guidance to its staff in their work of acquiring content for its collection, but we also seek to share this with other stakeholders, from the creative community to vendors to other libraries, each of which has a need and interest in preservation and access. To ensure ongoing accuracy and relevancy, the Library of Congress will be reviewing and revising the specifications on an annual basis and welcomes feedback and input from all interested parties.