I found this document helpful: Guidelines on File Naming Conventions for Digital Collections http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/systems/digitalinitiatives/docs/filenameguidelines.pdf
We use the following scheme for digitizing correspondence from collections that cannot be identified by accession # or box/folder #: Correspondent_IN_YYYYMMDDa.pdf (where "IN" represents initials for the internal recipient and "a" is indicating page 1 of multi-page letter) Example- Century_Association_DP_19220503.pdf Correspondent__IN_undated01a.pdf (where "01" is the first in a series of undated items and "a" indicates page 1 of a multi-page letter) Example- Carey_E_EB_undated01a.pdf -Sarah Sarah Osborne Bender | Technical Services Librarian and Collections Metadata Specialist t 202-387-2151 x329 | f 202-387-2436 www.phillipscollection.org | Experience the Phillips app (apple/android) and blog today T H E P H I L L I P S C O L L E C T I O N 1600 21st St., NW | Washington, DC | 20009 -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of lauren boegen Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 5:05 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: [MCN-L] File naming conventions for digitized archives Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone would be able and willing to share their experiences with file naming when digitizing an archive. We are struggling to find an efficient yet informative/functional way to assign file names to items in the collection that aren't individually identified at the item level. For example, we have several letters from John Doe to Jane Doe grouped in a folder and IDed as such in the finding aid, but we don't identify each individual letter by an accession number. The archive in question contains the business and family papers of an American astronomer and telescope maker and include mostly letters, invoices, and business materials related to telescope delivery. The best we've been able to come up with is a file name combining some sort of descriptor about what the image actually is (ie. letter_fromjohndoe_tojanedoe) and location (Clark_Series1_Box6_Folder2), but this seems unwieldy. I know someone out there's got to have figured out a better way, and any insight would be appreciated. Thanks! Lauren --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lauren Boegen Digital Collections Manager Webster Institute for the History of Astronomy The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum phone: 312.542.2618 lboegen at adlerplanetarium.org
