Identifying Digital Media

This page is for staff identifying digital media on a site visit prior to acquisition. For instructions on digital media separation see Digital Media Separation.

Common Formats

These formats often appear in collections. Most of these formats can be transferred in-house. Existing vendor relationships are in place to transfer the rest of these formats.

3.5 Inch Floppy Disk

5.25 Inch Floppy Disk

SuperDisk

Iomega Zip Disk

USB Flash Drive

SD Card

External Hard Drive

Computer

Hard Disk Drive (No Enclosure)

Notable Formats

These formats sometimes appear in collections. Some of these formats can be transferred in-house.

SyQuest

Bernoulli Box

8 inch Floppy Disk

Advanced Intelligent Tape(AIT)

Digital Data Storage Tape(DDS)

Linear Tape Open(LTO)

Quarter Inch Cartridge(QIC)

Travan Tape

5.25 inch Magneto-Optical Disk

DVD-RAM

Iomega Jaz Disk

Digital or Audio-Visual

These formats can contain digital material or audio-visual material. You may need to check with the donor to identify whether it is digital or audio-visual material.

CD/DVD Optical Media

MiniDV Tape

Video Floppy

MiniDisc

Not Digital Storage

These items are often mistaken for digital media. They do not contain digital material and should generally not be acquired.

SuperDrive