Designated Community
A Designated Community is the specific group of people or systems that an archive identifies as the intended users of its preserved records and commits to keeping the information understandable and usable for over time.
Designated Community is a foundational concept from the OAIS reference model for digital preservation. It names the audience an archive serves, and it sets the bar for what “preserved” actually means: an object is successfully preserved only if the Designated Community can still locate, access, and independently understand it without outside help. Defining this community is a deliberate act of appraisal and policy, not an afterthought.
Why it matters in recordkeeping is practical. The community’s assumed knowledge base determines how much explanatory metadata, format documentation, and representation information the archive must capture and maintain. A narrow, technical audience may need little context; a broad public audience may need far more.
For example, an agency archive preserving engineering drawings might define its Designated Community as future agency engineers who understand the relevant CAD formats and standards. If that community shifts, the archive must add representation information so the records remain intelligible. The definition is reviewed over time, because audiences and their knowledge change.