Making sense of the contents of files – especially large numbers of files in diverse formats – is a persistent and ubiquitous challenge for those undertaking digital preservation. Understanding how information is packaged, transmitted and processed is essential for ensuring that it can remain intelligible through time. Understanding the intricacies of files can be a daunting and intricate exasperating task, but it is also an obvious candidate for informed collaboration. There have been numerous initiatives in the last decade designing, developing and refining tools and registries that help us to understand the behaviour of files, and some of these are now plugged directly into the architectures of numerous repositories and archives already.

This DPC ‘Day of Action’ will introduce a range of recent initiatives in this domain and it will provide a focussed burst of activity which will be of benefit to all with an interest in digital preservation. Participants will be invited to bring problem files with them, and to work with experts in the field to catalogue problems and develop tools to help characterise and manage them.