Recommended Formats Statement

Archival quality paper (ISO 11108: 1996 for Archival Paper)

Paper which does not meet this standard can successfully be preserved by the Library of Congress

1. Lithography (offset printing press)
2. Inkjet (inkjet printer using stable pigment or dye-based inks)

1. Xerography (Electrophotography)

Binding, in descending order of preference:

1. Hard cover
1. Library binding (NISO Z39.78-2000)
2. Sewn through fold
3. Other sewn leaf attachment
4. Double Fan Adhesive
5. Other adhesive leaf attachment
6. With slip case and/or dust jacket if available
2. For broadsides and musical compositions, the Library prefers items:
1. In protective folders
2. Rolled (rather than folded)

1. Soft cover
1. Sewn
2. Glued only
3. Spiral- or plastic-bound
4. Stapled
2. Unbound material,  such as manuscripts, ring binders, etc.

• Limited editions (including those with special binding or special features)
• Editions with the greatest number of unique features (such as pop-ups, overlaps, magnifiers, overlays, tabs, notches, etc.)
• Illustrated editions; original color illustrations preferred over black and white reproductions

Editions without these features

• Complete work. For items published in a finite number of separate components, all elements published as part of the work and offered for sale or distribution must be submitted.
• All updates, supplements, releases, and supersessions published as part of the work and offered for sale or distribution must be submitted. Insertions (including all binders and indexes) must be received in a regular and timely manner for proper maintenance of the deposit.

1. As displayed on item:
1. Title
2. Creator
3. Publication/Creation Date or Start Date/End Date
4. Place of Publication
5. Publisher/Producer/Distributor
6. ISBN/ISSN
7. Contact information
2. If available:
1. Other relevant identifiers (e.g., DOI, LCCN, etc.)
2. Edition
3. Subject descriptors
4. Abstracts
5. License or Copyright Status

1. As displayed on item:
1. Title
2. Creator
3. Publication/Creation Date or Start Date/End Date
4. Place of Publication
5. Publisher/Producer/Distributor

Character encoding, in descending order of preference:

1. UTF-8, UTF-16 (with BOM), US-ASCII
2. ISO 8859

Other character encodings not listed in Preferred section

As received:

• XML-based markup formats, with included or accessible DTD/schema, XSD/XSL presentation stylesheet(s), and explicitly stated character encoding
• EPUB3-compliant. (Other versions of EPUB are also preferred formats but EPUB3 is the most common.)
• Other widely-used book DTDs/schemas (e.g., TEI, DocBook, etc.)
• Page-layout formats
• PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1 compliant)
• PDF/A (ISO 19005-compliant)
• PDF (highest quality available, with features such as searchable text, embedded fonts, lossless compression, high resolution images, device-independent specification of colorspace, content tagging; includes document formats such as PDF/X)

Other structured or markup formats in order of preference:

1. XHTML or HTML, with DOCTYPE declaration and presentation stylesheet(s)
2. XML-based document formats (widely-used and publicly-documented), with presentation stylesheet(s) if applicable. Includes DOCX/OOXML 2012 (ISO 29500), ODF (ISO/IEC 26300) and OOXML (ISO/IEC 29500).
3. SGML, with included or accessible DTD
4. BITS (Book Interchange Tag Suite) version 2.0
5. Page-layout formats
1. PDF (web-optimized)
6. Other formats
1. Rich text format (RTF)
2. Plain text
3. Widely-used proprietary word-processing formats

• Limited editions (including those with special features such as high resolution images)
• Editions with the greatest number of unique features (such as additional content, multimedia, interactive elements, etc.)

Editions without these features

• Complete work. For items published in a finite number of separate components, all elements published as part of the work and offered for sale or distribution must be submitted. Includes all associated external files and fonts considered integral to the publication.
• All updates, supplements, releases, and supersessions published as part of the work and offered for sale or distribution must be submitted and received in a regular and timely manner for proper maintenance of the deposit.

1. As supported by format (e.g., standards-based formats such as ONIX for Books, XMP, MODS, METS, or MARCXML either embedded in or accompanying the digital item):
1. Title
2. Creator
3. Publication/Creation Date or Start Date/End Date
4. Place of publication
5. Publisher/producer/distributor
6. ISBN/ISSN
7. Contact information
2. If available:
1. Language of work
2. Other relevant identifiers (e.g., DOI, LCCN, original URL, etc.)
3. Edition
4. Subject descriptors
5. Abstracts
6. License or Copyright status

1. As displayed on item:
1. Title
2. Creator
3. Publication/Creation Date or Start Date/End Date
4. Place of Publication
5. Publisher/Producer/Distributor

Files must contain no measures (such as digital rights management [DRM] technologies or encryption) that control access to or prevent use of the digital work

Character encoding, in descending order of preference:

1. UTF-8, UTF-16 (with BOM), US-ASCII
2. ISO 8859

Other character encodings not listed in Preferred section

As received:

• Content compliant with the NISO JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite (ANSI/NISO Z39.96-2015) with XSD/XSL presentation stylesheet(s) and explicitly stated character encoding
• Page-layout formats
• PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1 compliant)
• PDF/A (ISO 19005-compliant)
• PDF (highest quality available, with features such as searchable text, embedded fonts, lossless compression, high resolution images, device-independent specification of colorspace, content tagging; includes document formats such as PDF/X

Other structured or markup formats in order of preference:

1. Widely-used serials or journal non-proprietary XML-based DTDs/schemas with included or accessible DTD/schema, presentation stylesheet(s) and explicitly stated character encoding.
2. Proprietary XML-based format for serials or journals (with documentation) with DTD/schema and presentation stylesheet(s)
3. XHTML or HTML, with DOCTYPE declaration and presentation stylesheet(s)
4. XML-based document formats (widely-used and publicly-documented), with presentation stylesheet(s) if applicable. Includes DOCX/OOXML 2012 (ISO 29500), ODF (ISO/IEC 26300) and OOXML (ISO/IEC 29500).
5. Page-layout formats
1. PDF (web-optimized with searchable text)
6. Other formats
1. Rich text format
2. Plain text
3. Widely-used proprietary word-processing formats or page-layout formats
4. Other text- or graphic-based formats not listed here that represent textual works

• Limited editions (including those with special features such as high resolution images)
• Editions with the greatest number of unique features (such as additional content, multimedia, interactive elements, etc.)

Editions without these features

• Complete work. All elements considered integral to the publication and offered for sale or distribution must be submitted - e.g., articles, table(s) of contents, front matter, back matters, etc. Includes all associated external files and fonts considered integral to the publication.
• All updates, supplements, releases, and supersessions published as part of the work and offered for sale or distribution must be submitted and received in a regular and timely manner for proper maintenance of the deposit.

Editions without these features

1. Title-level metadata (e.g., standards-based formats such as ONIX for Books, XMP, MODS, METS, or MARCXML either embedded in or accompanying the digital item):
1. Serial or journal title
2. ISSN and ISSN-L
3. Publisher
4. Frequency
5. Place of publication
2. Structured metadata as relevant or applicable (e.g., standards-based formats such as ONIX for Books, XMP. MODS, METS, or MARCXML either embedded in or accompanying the digital item):
1. Volume(s)
2. Number(s)
3. Issue/Article date(s)
4. Article title(s)
5. Article author(s)
6. Article identifier (DOI, original URL, etc.)
3. Include if available:
1. Other descriptive metadata (e.g., subject headings, descriptors, abstracts)
2. Other relevant identifiers (e.g., LCCN, etc.)

Files must contain no measures (such as digital rights management [DRM] technologies or encryption) that control access to or prevent use of the digital work.