After the success of 2019’s first PRONOM Research Week, the event is back for 2020! During the weeks of 5-19 October, volunteers are encouraged to help with PRONOM’s research backlog. You can enhance documentation, supply sample files, or create a signature, among other things.

Participants will have access to the PRONOM research backlog in a GitHub repository, which will also be the central location to share sample files and submissions. Use the GitHub repository to post issues you’d like addressed and volunteer to take on open issues. Additional resources including blog entries and webinars are also available to help you learn more and get started. You can also ask questions and share resources in the Google group.

What’s PRONOM?

PRONOM is a file format registry that currently holds information on almost 1,700 distinct file formats. This includes different versions of the multiple Microsoft Word document types that have existed, for example. However, almost 600 entries in the registry contain only a brief description of the format. Furthermore, 400 formats do not have a file signature, which are based on the internal structure of the file and allow us to identify the format with a high degree of certainty.

We look forward to your contributions!