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Upload and download metadata

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Maria Praetzellis
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Notes

  • If your metadata contains diacritics, ligatures, and/or non-Roman alphabets we recommend that you use the free open source LibreOffice Calc application to move between file formats (TXT, CSV) and generate an ODS file for upload that will preserve these characters.
  • After uploading your metadata, it may take 15-20 minutes for your changes to be reflected on the public site. If your changes are not reflected on the public site after 24 hours, contact us.

Seed level metadata

To make bulk changes to seed-level metadata in a collection, select the Metadata tab and then select the Bulk Seed Metadata sub-tab.

bulk_seed_metadata_navigation.png

Create a file to upload

Metadata must be uploaded as an ODS (Open Spreadsheet Format) file. You have the option of a) downloading an ODS file of any existing seed metadata from the upload screen or b) creating your own spreadsheet. To start, we recommend that you download an ODS file of existing seed metadata. To download, click the Download Existing Seed Metadata link. 

download_existing_seed_metadata_link.png

metadata_spreadsheet_example.png

The first row in your spreadsheet contains column headers, which are labels for each of your standard and custom metadata fields, starting with the (seed) URL. Each additional column header in the first row should contain a label for metadata fields you are adding or replacing such as Description and Creator.

  • If you have not yet added metadata to your collection, the downloaded ODS file will be limited to a list of seed URLs in the first column. Note: If you want to add fields that map to the standard Dublin Core Metadata Set, capitalize the first letter of the field name (for example, Subject not subject).  
  • If metadata was previously added, the header row in your spreadsheet will contain field labels for the seed URL and each field that has existing metadata. 
  • All metadata fields in Archive-It are repeatable. For fields that have more than one value, add a new column for each value (for example, two Subject columns). Only add values in the additional columns for URLs where multiple values are desired.   
  • If a URL in the first column does not match an existing seed URL in your collection, the ODS file will not upload. You will be notified of the row(s) in which the issue occurred.

Upload your ODS file

You have two options when adding seed metadata:

upload_ODS_metadata_file.png

1. Add to existing seed metadata values, if any

Because all metadata fields in Archive-It are repeatable, you have the option of adding additional information to any preexisting standard or custom field, or creating a custom field.

Files uploaded with this method should only contain new metadata fields and values you want to add to existing metadata, and should only include rows of seed URLs to which you want additional metadata added without changing or replacing existing metadata. Note that blank cells containing no value for a metadata field will do nothing using this option.

The preview feature will show you the metadata that is currently in the collection in grey and a preview of how the updated metadata will appear in bold.

2. Overwrite existing seed metadata values, if any

When files are added with this method, fields in the spreadsheet are checked to see if the URLs designated have a preexisting value(s). If they do, the values will be replaces with the values in the new spreadsheet. Note that blank cells containing no value for a metadata field will erase existing values for that URL/field using this option.

The preview feature will show the metadata being overwritten in strike through form and a preview of how the updated metadata will appear in bold.

Duplicate Seeds

If your collection contains duplicate URLs, as reflected in your spreadsheet, you will see a yellow File Warnings box alerting you to the row in which the duplicate appears and the metadata that will be assigned to it. By default, duplicate seed URLs in a spreadsheet will be assigned the metadata for the first duplicate seed URL that appears in the spreadsheet.

We strongly recommend that you review changes for these duplicate seeds before committing them to ensure that your desired metadata is committed for the duplicate seeds.

Document level metadata

To make bulk changes to document-level metadata in a collection, select the Metadata tab and then select the Bulk Document Metadata sub-tab.

Create a file to upload

Metadata must be uploaded as an ODS (Open Spreadsheet Format) file. You have the option of downloading an ODS file of any existing document metadata from the upload screen or creating your own spreadsheet. To start, we recommend that you download an ODS file of existing document metadata. To download, click the Download Existing Document Metadata link.

bulk_document_metadata_navigation.png

The first row in your spreadsheet contains column headers, which are labels for each of your metadata fields, starting with the (document) URL. Each additional column header in the first row should contain a label for metadata fields you are adding or replacing such as Description and Creator.

  • If you want to add fields that map to the standard Dublin Core Metadata Set, capitalize the first letter of the field name (for example, Subject not subject). 
  • If metadata was previously added, the first row in your spreadsheet will contain field labels for the seed URL and each field that has existing metadata.
  • All metadata fields in Archive-It are repeatable. For fields that have more than one value, add a new column for each value (for example, two Subject columns). Only add values in the additional columns for URLs where multiple values are desired.
  • If a URL in the first column does not match an existing document URL in your collection, the ODS file will not upload. You will be notified of the row(s) in which the issue occurred. 

You can add metadata to the following types of URLs:

Upload your ODS file

You have two options when adding document metadata:

upload_bulk_document_metadata_ODS_file.png

1. Add to existing document metadata values, if any

Because all metadata fields in Archive-It are repeatable, you have the option of adding additional information to any preexisting standard or custom field, or creating a custom field.

Files uploaded with this method should only contain new metadata fields and values you want to add to existing metadata, and should only include rows of document URLs to which you want additional metadata added without changing or replacing existing metadata. Note that blank cells containing no value for a metadata field will do nothing using this option.

The preview feature will show you the metadata that is currently in the collection in grey and a preview of how the updated metadata will appear in bold.

2. Overwrite existing document metadata values, if any

When files are added with this method, fields in the spreadsheet are checked to see if the URLs designated have a preexisting value(s). If it does, it will replace the values with those in the new spreadsheet. Note that blank cells containing no value for a metadata field will erase existing values for that URL/field using this option.

The preview feature will show the metadata being overwritten in strike through form and a preview of how the updated metadata will appear in bold.

Duplicate Document URLs

If your spreadsheet contains duplicate document URLs, you will see a yellow File Warnings box alerting you to the row in which the duplicate appears and the metadata that will be assigned to it. By default, duplicate document URLs in a spreadsheet will be assigned the metadata for the first duplicate URL that appears in the spreadsheet.

 We strongly recommend that you review changes for the duplicate metadata before committing to ensure that your desired metadata is committed for the duplicate URLs.

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