Hi All
We are currently working on a new feature enabling you to bulk ingest assets and metadata into Preservica using a CSV file.
It would be great if you could take a couple of minutes to answer a short survey, so we can learn more about your requirements and develop a solution that truly meets your needs.
The survey will close on Friday, 12th November 2021.
Please complete the short survey here
Thanks in advance.
Michaela
Product Director, User Value
Would this mean we wouldn’t have to figure out how to translate the content in the CSV file to a .metadata XML document for every asset we ingest? In other words, would your system take our CSV file and do all that translation for us? Right now we are bogged down in having to come up with a variety of scripts that can translate the data, and it’s a long and complex process.
Kate
Hi Kate,
Yes you will be able to use a CSV file instead of an XML document, and ingest content and metadata into Preservica that way.
Kind regards,
Michaela
Hi Michaela:
I watched your presentation video on this topic from November 2021. Thank you very much. It was very helpful and interesting. I have a few questions about this upcoming feature.
Thank you very much.
Best,
Kate
Hi Kate,
Many thanks for watching the video. Here are the answers to your questions:
You will be able to skip the Open Refine step, but please bear in mind that the excel documents will need to have exactly the same columns as the version of DC and MODS supported by Starter, and that this initial version of the feature will not support custom metadata fields. So the format of your metadata file needs to be exactly the same as the DC or MODS templates made available in the product. We will be adding support for custom metadata fields next year, which will provide more flexibility when uploading metadata.
Kind regards,
Michaela
Thanks for your reply. Where can I see ahead of time what the columns will be? And does it need to be exact down to the number of repetitions? For example, if your template has space for 4 associated authors, am I limited to 4 and cannot add a 5th or 6th like I can in my own spreadsheet?
Also, I am not sure where to post this, but I’m unable to access the recording for “Recording: Starter user community workshop – December 2021.” The link goes to a protected YouTube link at the moment. Thank you!
Kate
+7
Hi Kate, you should now be able to view the recording from the Starter user community workshop (thanks for highlighting 
)
Hi Kate,
Thanks for your question:
Where can I see ahead of time what the columns will be? And does it need to be exact down to the number of repetitions? For example, if your template has space for 4 associated authors, am I limited to 4 and cannot add a 5th or 6th like I can in my own spreadsheet?
We will make the templates available to you, but we don’t have these as yet. The columns in your spreadsheet need to correspond exactly to the columns in the template.
Could I ask whether you already have a spreadsheet you would like to use or whether you are just anticipating a need for multiple author fields for example?
Kind regards,
Michaela
Could I ask whether you already have a spreadsheet you would like to use or whether you are just anticipating a need for multiple author fields for example?
I do have a spreadsheet that I'm already using. Using a script in OpenRefine, I generate companion XML documents for all the PDFs and images being ingested. My spreadsheet has customized headers, including one primary contributor and space for four associated contributors. Because fields are repeatable in MODS, I could technically add more if needed. (Scientific papers often have lots of authors.) My spreadsheet has headers your template won’t have, like “Parent Volume” and “Parent Number,” which gets mapped to MODS like this:
<mods:detail type="volume">
<mods:number>23</mods:number>
</mods:detail>
<mods:detail type="number">
<mods:number>1</mods:number>
</mods:detail>
Including all possible fields and the title, I have 61 potential pieces of metadata I fill in on my Excel spreadsheet for any given item. Of course, many of those fields end up being blank because chances are slim all 61 fields will apply to any given item.
It sounds like your CSV solution is for Starter users, not for Cloud users, so it won’t apply to us anyway, although it would be much easier than the roundabout way we’re doing it now. I’m very interested to see if this might be applicable to our situation, which is as a University that will be ingesting student and faculty scholarship, as well as some archival photos and other historically significant materials.
The asset submission functionality is also something I'm very interested in, as right now we have to build out our own submission forms. But I understand that won’t be available to Cloud users either, at least not in the foreseeable future.
Kate
+6
Hi-
I was just wondering when the CSV template for bulk ingest metadata will be available. I think we’re on track for January (2022)?
Thanks!
Ashley
Town Archivist
Town of Bedford, MA
Hi Ashley,
We should be on track for end of January release. You will be able to find out more in the upcoming Community Workshop:
Kind regards,
Michaela
+6
Thank you!
Is there any additional information on when this feature will be available to EPC users?
Is this feature available to CE users yet?
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