A new beta version of JHOVE (the JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment, pronounced "jove") is now available at <http://hul.harvard.edu/jhove/>. JHOVE is an extensible framework for format-specific object identification, validation, and characterization. Format identification answers the question, "I have an object; what format is it?" Validation answers the question, "I have a format purportedly of format F; is it?" Characterization answers the question, "I have an object of format F; what are its salient properties?" This version, rel. 1.0 beta 3 (2005-02-04), includes the following enhancements: o An HTML module supporting HTML 3.2, 4.0, 4.01, and XHTML 1.0 and 1.1 o The TIFF module supports the new DNG profile o The AIFF and WAVE modules report audio metadata consistent with the most recent working draft of the AES X098B schema o Internal reorganization to facilitate the construction of new front-ends in addition to the existing command- line and Swing interfaces o A full suite of dump utilities to provide low-level human readable dumps of AIFF, GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, TIFF, and WAVE files o Miscellaneous error corrections and enhancements Further details of the changes introduced with this version can be found in the release notes. We anticipate this to be the last BETA version of JHOVE; the first PRODUCTION release is tentatively scheduled for April 2005. Please direct all comments to <[log in to unmask]>. JHOVE is made available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). JHOVE is a joint project of JSTOR and the Harvard University Library. Development of JHOVE was funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through a grant to JSTOR for its Electronic-Archiving Initiative. --- Stephen L. Abrams Digital Library Program Manager Harvard University Library, Office for Information Systems 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 404 Cambridge, MA 02138 T +1 (617) 495-3724 F +1 (617) 495-0491 E [log in to unmask] W http://hul.harvard.edu/~stephen/