As more and more collection objects are born-digital and non-physical in nature, archivists must develop core competencies regarding the fundamental nature of digital objects. Just as knowledge of the chemical composition of cellulose (for example) is essential for the care and maintenance of paper materials, the knowledge of file construction at a bit-level is essential for archivist to make careful decisions about what are and are not unique characteristics of a given digital collection object and how best to determine sustainable and safe care and maintenance plans for the digital collection object over time. This tutorial illustrates the fundamental binary elements of digital audio and video objects, from bits to bytes to formal format structures. The tutorial will demonstrate methods for understanding and interpreting these many technological layers, including how to translate bytes into understandable information based on file format specifications, and how to distinguish file object information from file system information in order to understand the true boundaries of a digital object within a given computer system.
