[Dspace-general] File Naming Conventions

[Scott Yeadon]

Hi Alvin,

Personally I don't see any point in embedding metadata within the 
filename in a DSpace context. As long as you have it recorded in the 
item metadata then you have it cpatured (and in a more meaningful and 
useful way than an internal filenaming scheme). On previous projects I 
have worked on the only time any meaning would be put into filenames 
(besides what made sense to the creator who named it) was where content 
is being managed at the file level (i.e. no database, no lookup tables, 
no higher level management services/APIs, etc).

Besides which, DSpace renames the file anyway on ingest, the filename is 
stored as bitstream metadata. So unless you have any internal 
requirements (or desire) to do so or have any functionality you're 
building that requires a particular file naming scheme (never a good 
idea if you can help it IMHO, and we haven't come across a need thus 
far) I wouldn't stress about it.

Scott.

Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:21:46 -0400
From: "Alvin Hutchinson" <HUTCHINSONA at si.edu>
Subject: [Dspace-general] File Naming Conventions
To: <Dspace-general at MIT.EDU>
Message-ID: <s446637d.087 at simail1.si.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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

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