Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement 2025-2026
The Recommended Formats Statement (RFS) identifies hierarchies of the physical and technical characteristics of creative formats, both analog and digital, which will best meet the needs of all concerned, maximizing the chances for survival and continued accessibility of creative content well into the future.
Primarily, the RFS is geared towards published content as opposed to personal papers or archival acquisitions. The RFS is especially helpful for collections development plans and recommending officers who seek and acquire content so that they can be mindful of the Library's preferences and capabilities for specific file formats. If, for example, published content was available in more than one format, the recommendation would be to select the content in a preferred or acceptable format.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Recommended Formats Statement
2025-2026 Recommended Formats Statement (HTML)
2025-2026 Recommended Formats Statement (PDF)
2025-2026 Summary Table of Digital Format Preferences (HTML)
Change log from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026 version (PDF)
Evaluation matrix template
This worksheet details how the Library of Congress determines if a format is "preferred" or "acceptable" based on both global/community criteria and local/institutional criteria. For more information, see Introduction and FAQ.
Format evaluation template with sample data - 2025 (XLSX)
Previous version (for reference use only)
2024-2025 Recommended Formats Statement (PDF)
Change log from 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 version (PDF)
Format evaluation template with sample data - 2024 revision with accessibility support criteria (XLSX)
Library Contacts and Links
Contacts for the Recommended Formats Statement
Sustainability of Digital Formats
Collection Development and Policies
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