Digital archives have to store their datasets over time, which poses an additional challenge: ensuring datasets remain usable whilst simultaneously software, by which the data was created, becomes obsolete. The MIXED software project was targeted at an effective solution, particularly for datasets from research in the social sciences and linguistics. The selected method translates the datasets on receipt into a well-defined and clear format. This requires conversions of common data formats into an interim format, and vice versa, as when recalled, the data will again have to be supplied in a future common format. The project is restricted to tabular data: MIXED only handles data in tables, such as databases and spreadsheets.
