On this page:

• Seed level metadata
• Document level metadata

 

Note: 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.

 

Seed level metadata

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

 

 

Create a file to import

Metadata must be uploaded as an .ODS (Open Spreadsheet Format) file. We recommend starting by downloading the .ODS file of existing seed metadata by clicking on the blue link on the metadata upload page. If your collection does not yet have any associated seed metadata, this option will provide you with the .ODS file of all seeds in your collection.

 

 

 

 

 

The first row in your spreadsheet should contain headers for each of your columns, starting with URL. Each additional column in this row should contain a header for metadata fields that you are adding or replacing (see above screenshot).

To create multiple values for a field, add a new column for the field you would like to have repeat (ex. two subject columns) and only add values for the second column for URLs where multiple values are desired.

If a URL does not match an archived document, the entire file will not import. 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:

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 imported 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 in order to see if the URLs designated have a preexisting value(s). If they do, 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 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 in order to ensure that your desired metadata is committed for the duplicate seeds.

 

Document level metadata

Create a file to import

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.