# NIST NSRL Efforts to Preserve Software in the Stanford Libraries Cabrinety Collection

The NSRL is a software collection at NIST used primarily by law enforcement organizations. The NSRL produces short data profiles called "hashes," digital fingerprints that uniquely identify a file on a computer as an unaltered copy of a specific program or other piece of software in the library's index. These hashes help determine which files are important as evidence on computers that have been seized as part of criminal investigations. The NSRL aims to make itself useful to a far broader swath of researchers by expanding its holdings and measuring aspects of them in new ways. A major new infusion of software is from the Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing at Stanford University, one of the world's largest pristine software collections. Stanford acquired the collection in 1998 as part of its larger effort to preserve digital materials for research purposes. NIST renders the materials into "images," a word that encompasses both pictures of the original physical packaging and bit-for-bit copies of the original software code. NIST will return the originals to SUL but will retain the images in the NSRL, which plans to make the software's hashes available. Stanford will make their entire code available once they address the intellectual property issues involving these commercial products. Researchers will then be able to explore the collection.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2013
- By: Library Of Congress
- Genres: Education, Science
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021689202/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021689202?play=1)