Assessing the Durability of Formats in a Digital Preservation Environment: The INFORM Methodology.

Abstract

Purpose – To describe INFORM, a new methodology for investigating and measuring the risk factors of digital formats and providing guidelines for preservation action plans.Design/methodology/approach – Construction of a model which aims to discover specific threats to preservation and measure their possible impact on preservation decisions. The methodology defines: risk categories of digital formats and their dependencies; risk factors for each category; scales to measure probability of occurrence and impact; and methods to collect, report and interpret the results.Findings – While individuals are biased and subjective in their aversion to risk, collating the assessments of many individuals should generate group‐consensus or group‐averaged objective results. Hence, preservation plans can be based on objective analysis of risk trends instead of individuals’ opinions developed in the relative isolation of their institutions. The methodology takes into consideration individuals’ aversion to risk, therefore re...