scope:

This Technical Report gives recommendations and provides guidance for maintaining archival optical disk collections. It describes the various services that would be necessary for the management of an optical media-based system to ensure a successful implementation of this technology. This Technical Report also - provides guidance in the maintenance of data residing on on-line, off-line, and near-line digital optical storage devices; - establishes a plan to ensure the migration path of digital information from early and current technology and optical media to future technologies and media; - provides guidance for the short- and long-term effect of the finite life of digital optical storage devices. This Technical Report also describes all forms of optical disk media including write-once-read-many (WORM), magneto-optical (MO), compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) and newer technologies.