[Dspace-general] File Naming Conventions

[courtois@ksu.edu]

Hi Alvin,

We went round and round with this in deciding how to name ETDs and
decided to go with a plan similar to your original idea (Authorname and
year).

A person using DSpace always has to go through the item record to access
the object.  Since the item record has much fuller metadata than you
could hope to incorporate in the filename, it seems there wouldn't be
much benefit in trying to include some limited metadata within the
filename.  Users won't be browsing or searching by filename.

This may be an issue when a user wants to save a copy of the file.  Some
folks may find it helpful to have a few hints in the filename, but
different folks may want different hints, e.g., some may want the
author and year, some would like the name of journal, others would like
the subject area, etc.  Maybe it's best to let the user decide what to
name the file as they save it (?)

On the other hand, if you're trying to encourage your scientists to
submit items to an IR, it might be easier for them if filenames have
some elements that help distinguish one article from another. Just a
thought...

Marty

Martin Courtois
Information Technology Assistance Center
509 Hale Library
Kansas State University
Manhattan KS 66502
Phone: 785 532-4428
Fax: 785 532-3199
E-mail: courtois at ksu.edu


Quoting Alvin Hutchinson <HUTCHINSONA at si.edu>:

> Has anyone wrestled with the issue of consistent file names for
> objects in
> DSpace? I'm not sure it is an issue but several of my researchers
> have
> brought it up.
>
> To date I have only been working with reprints and my standard has
> been
> 'AuthorLastnameDate.pdf' as in: Hutchinson2006.pdf. In the case of
> multiple
> publications from one from an author in a given year, I have been
> adding a,
> b, c, etc. to the end of the date.
>
> However some scientists have suggested embedding some metadata such
> as:
>
> Hutchinson_AmScientist_pp659-67_2004.pdf
> or
> Hutchinson_AmScientist_freshwater_ecology_2005.pdf
>
> Should any of this make a difference either now or in some unforseen
> future
> situation?
>
> Alvin Hutchinson
> Smithsonian Institution Libraries
> 202.633.1031
>
>