All file formats become obsolete over time. There are tens of thousands of formats in use today. How will we make sense of information stored in these formats over time? This week’s Tech Tuesday entry talks about one line of research that is attempting to address this issue – the Data Format Descriptive Language (DFDL).

After winning the 1860 presidential election, Abraham Lincoln left his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, on a 12-day journey to Washington. With the help of our technology research partners in Illinois, it takes just a few seconds to send huge volumes of electronic copies of his records back to Lincoln’s Presidential Library.