Archivematica 1.8.1 is a legacy release, and these documents are no longer being maintained.

Import metadata

You can import metadata by including a directory called metadata in your transfer. The directory can contain any type of metadata that you wish to preserve alongside your digital objects. The Process Metadata Directory Microservice will perform a number of preservation actions on objects in this directory.

Archivematica also supports conventions for importing descriptive metadata and rights metadata that will transpose the contents of the metadata files into the METS file. Metadata in the METS file is searchable in the Archival Storage tab.

On this page:

See also

Create a transfer with submission documentation

Importing descriptive metadata with metadata.csv

Archivematica natively supports the Dublin Core Metadata Elements Set, the basic 15 Dublin Core metadata elements. Using the metadata.csv method, users can also include non-Dublin Core metadata at the directory level or at the object level. Archivematica is able to pass Dublic Core metadata to AtoM or ArchivesSpace, but not any non-Dublin Core metadata.

Dublin Core metadata is written to the <dmdSec> of the METS file as MDTYPE="DC". Non-Dublin Core metadata will be written into a separate <dmdSec> as MDTYPE="OTHER". A sample of the METS output is available below.

Important

As of version 1.4, both directory and object level metadata is allowed in the metadata.csv. The CSV can contain only object level, only directory level, or a combination of both.

  1. Create a transfer that contains a directory called metadata.
  2. For simple objects, digital objects should be placed in the top-level directory.
Metadata folder in transfer directory contains metadata.csv file

Metadata folder in transfer directory containing metadata.csv file.

  1. For compound objects, create one or more subdirectories in the objects directory, each containing the files that form a compound object.
Metadata folder in transfer directory with compound objects

Compound object file structure.

Important

The subdirectory names must not contain spaces or other forbidden characters.

  1. Add a CSV file to the metadata folder for the transfer called metadata.csv.
    • The first row of the CSV file consists of field names. Field names must not include spaces.
    • Dublin Core field names must contain the “dc” element in the name, e.g. “dc.title”. Note that the Dublin Core is not validated – this is up to the user.
    • Dublin Core terms must contain “dcterms” in the name, e.g. “dcterms:abstract”. As above, the Dublin Core is not validated – this is up to the user.
    • Each subsequent row contains the field values for a single directory or file.
    • For multi-value fields (such as dc.subject), the entire column is repeated and each column contains a single value (i.e. there should be multiple dc.subject columns if there are multiple subject terms).
    • Empty columns can be deleted, if you prefer.
    • The first column in the metadata.csv file must be a “filename” column. This column should list the filepath and filename (e.g. “objects/BrocktonOval.jp2”) or directory name of each object or directory (e.g. “objects/Jan021964”). Note that the filepath or directory path must start with objects/. This is a legacy artifact when all digital objects in the transfer had to be nested in such a way.
    • If you have directory level metadata, fill out the fields on the same line as the directory (e.g. objects/).
    • Note that filenames can be duplicates of filenames in other subdirectories if desired. For example, the name “page01.jp2” can occur in multiple subdirectories.
Example csv file contents

Example of metadata.csv file contents

  1. At the Generate METS microservice, Archivematica parses the metadata in metadata.csv to the METS file, as follows:
    • All Dublin Core elements are used to generate a <dmdSec> for each directory or file with MDTYPE="DC"
    • All non-Dublin Core elements are used to generate a <dmdSec> for each directory or file with MDTYPE="OTHER" OTHERMDTYPE="CUSTOM"
    • The <dmdSec> are linked to their directories or files in the <structMap> section of the METS file.

Simple objects

This section provides CSV and METS file examples for simple objects – i.e. individual files that are not pages in a compound object such as a book or a newspaper issue.

Example Simple Objects CSV file:

filename dc.title dc.creator dc.subject dc.subject dc.subject dc.description dc.publisher dc.contributor dc.date dc.type dc.format dc.identifier dc.source dc.language dc.relation dc.coverage dc.rights
objects/bird.mp3 14000 Caen, France - Bird in my garden Nicolas Germain field recording soundscapes radio aporee Bird singing in my garden, Caen, France, Zoom H6 Radio Aporee   2017-05-27 sound audio/mp3   Internet Archive       Public domain
objects/beihai.tif Beihai, Guanxi, China, 1988 NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/ JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team China Beihai   Beihai is a city in the south of Guangxi, People’s republic of China. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory   February 29, 2016 image image.tif   NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory       Public domain

Note that empty columns (i.e. dc.contributor) were left in to demonstrate the full range of possible Dublin Core values. If you prefer, you can delete empty columns.

Example Simple Objects METS file:

Below is a snippet of the METS file, containing two descriptive metadata sections (<dmdSec>), one for each file. These contain the Dublin Core metadata parsed from the metadata.csv. Note in the <mdWrap> that they are given an MDTYPE of “DC”. If there had been non-Dublin Core metadata in the metadata.csv, there would be a separate <mdWrap> with an MDTYPE of “OTHER”.

<mets xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/METS/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/METS/ http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/version18/mets.xsd">
 <dmdSec ID="dmdSec_1">
   <mdWrap MDTYPE="DC">
     <xmlData>
       <dcterms:dublincore xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://purl.org/dc/terms/ http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/2008/02/11/dcterms.xsd">
         <dc:title>Beihai, Guanxi, China, 1988</dc:title>
         <dc:creator>NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team</dc:creator>
         <dc:subject>satellite imagery</dc:subject>
         <dc:subject>China|Beihai</dc:subject>
         <dc:description>Beihai is a city in the south of Guangxi, Peoples republic of China.</dc:description>
         <dc:publisher>NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</dc:publisher>
         <dc:contributor></dc:contributor>
         <dc:date>February 29,2016</dc:date>
         <dc:type>image</dc:type>
         <dc:format>image/tif</dc:format>
         <dc:identifier></dc:identifier>
         <dc:source>NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</dc:source>
         <dc:language></dc:language>
         <dc:relation></dc:relation>
         <dc:coverage></dc:coverage>
         <dc:rights>Public domain</dc:rights>
       </dublincore>
     </xmlData>
   </mdWrap>
 </dmdSec>
 <mets:dmdSec ID="dmdSec_2">
   <mets:mdWrap MDTYPE="DC">
     <mets:xmlData>
       <dcterms:dublincore xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://purl.org/dc/terms/ http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/2008/02/11/dcterms.xsd">
         <dc:title>14000 Caen, France - Bird in my garden</dc:title>
         <dc:creator>Nicolas Germain</dc:creator>
         <dc:subject>field recording</dc:subject>
         <dc:subject>phonography|soundscape|sound art|soundmap|radio|ephemeral|listening|radio aporee</dc:subject>
         <dc:description>Bird singing in my garden, Caen, France, Zoom H6</dc:description>
         <dc:publisher>Radio Aporee</dc:publisher>
         <dc:contributor></dc:contributor>
         <dc:date>2017-05-27</dc:date>
         <dc:type>sound</dc:type>
         <dc:format>audio/mp3</dc:format>
         <dc:identifier></dc:identifier>
         <dc:source>Internet Archive</dc:source>
         <dc:language></dc:language>
         <dc:relation></dc:relation>
         <dc:coverage></dc:coverage>
         <dc:rights>Public domain</dc:rights>
       </dcterms:dublincore>
     </mets:xmlData>
   </mets:mdWrap>
 </mets:dmdSec>
</mets>

Compound objects

This section provides CSV file and METS file examples for compound objects – i.e. multi-page digital objects such as newspapers and books.

Example Compound objects CSV file:

parts dc.title alternative_title dc.publisher dates_of_publication dc.subject dc.date dc.description frequency dc.language forms_part_of repository project_website digital_file_format
objects/Jan021964 Coast News, January 02, 1964 Sunshine Coast News Fred Cruice 1945-1995 Gibsons (B.C.)–Newspapers 1964/01/02 Serving the Growing Sunshine Coast Weekly English British Columbia Historical Newspapers collection Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives http://historicalnewspapers.library.ubc.ca image/jp2
objects/Jan091964 Coast News, January 09, 1964 Sunshine Coast News Fred Cruice 1945-1995 Gibsons (B.C.)–Newspapers 1964/01/09 Serving the Growing Sunshine Coast Weekly English British Columbia Historical Newspapers collection Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives http://historicalnewspapers.library.ubc.ca image/jp2
                           

Example Compound Objects METS file:

<mets xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/METS/" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/METS/ http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/version18/mets.xsd">
<dmdSec ID="dmdSec_1">
    <mdWrap MDTYPE="DC">
        <xmlData>
            <dublincore xsi:schemaLocation="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1 http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/dc.xsd http://purl.org/dc/terms/ http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/2008/2/11/dcterms.xsd">
            <title>Coast News, January 02, 1964</title>
            <subject>Gibsons (B.C.)--Newspapers</subject>
            <description>Serving the Growing Sunshine Coast</description>
            <publisher>Fred Cruice</publisher>
            <date>1964/01/02</date>
            <language>English</language>
        </dublincore>
    </xmlData>
</mdWrap>
</dmdSec>
<dmdSec ID="dmdSec_2">
    <mdWrap MDTYPE="OTHER" OTHERMDTYPE="CUSTOM">
        <xmlData>
            <alternative_title>Sunshine Coast News</alternative_title>
            <dates_of_publication>1945-1995</dates_of_publication>
            <frequency>Weekly</frequency>
            <forms_part_of>British Columbia Historical Newspapers Collection</forms_part_of>
            <repository>
                Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives
            </repository>
            <project_website>http://historicalnewspapers.library.ubc.ca</project_website>
            <digital_image_format>image/jp2</digital_image_format>
        </xmlData>
    </mdWrap>
</dmdSec>
<dmdSec ID="dmdSec_3">
    <mdWrap MDTYPE="DC">
        <xmlData>
            <dublincore xsi:schemaLocation="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1 http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/dc.xsd http://purl.org/dc/terms/ http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/qdc/2008/2/11/dcterms.xsd">
            <title>Coast News, January 09, 1964</title>
            <subject>Gibsons (B.C.)--Newspapers</subject>
            <description>Serving the Growing Sunshine Coast</description>
            <publisher>Fred Cruice</publisher>
            <date>1964/01/09</date>
            <language>English</language>
        </dublincore>
    </xmlData>
</mdWrap>
</dmdSec>
<dmdSec ID="dmdSec_4">
    <mdWrap MDTYPE="OTHER" OTHERMDTYPE="CUSTOM">
        <xmlData>
            <alternative_title>Sunshine Coast News</alternative_title>
            <dates_of_publication>1945-1995</dates_of_publication>
            <frequency>Weekly</frequency>
            <forms_part_of>British Columbia Historical Newspapers Collection</forms_part_of>
            <repository>Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives</repository>
            <project_website>http://historicalnewspapers.library.ubc.ca</project_website>
            <digital_image_format>image/jp2</digital_image_format>
        </xmlData>
    </mdWrap>
</dmdSec>
<fileSec>
    <fileGrp USE="original">
        <file ID="page01.jp2-31e3ee5c-ff7a-4fb9-818d-e325345a5766" GROUPID="Group-31e3ee5c-ff7a-4fb9-818d-e325345a5766" ADMID="amdSec_1">
            <FLocat xlink:href="objects/Jan021964/page01.jp2" LOCTYPE="OTHER" OTHERLOCTYPE="SYSTEM"/>
        </file>
        <file ID="page02.jp2-626bc937-5a6e-4a32-adf4-7db7ab5a3e66" GROUPID="Group-626bc937-5a6e-4a32-adf4-7db7ab5a3e66" ADMID="amdSec_2">
            <FLocat xlink:href="objects/Jan021964/page02.jp2" LOCTYPE="OTHER" OTHERLOCTYPE="SYSTEM"/>
        </file>
        <file ID="page01.jp2-38e939e0-74fe-4ace-81ff-da4b89fa3481" GROUPID="Group-38e939e0-74fe-4ace-81ff-da4b89fa3481" ADMID="amdSec_3">
            <FLocat xlink:href="objects/Jan091964/page01.jp2" LOCTYPE="OTHER" OTHERLOCTYPE="SYSTEM"/>
        </file>
        <file ID="page02.jp2-f42aaa1b-3816-45ed-9419-193474462481" GROUPID="Group-f42aaa1b-3816-45ed-9419-193474462481" ADMID="amdSec_4">
            <FLocat xlink:href="objects/Jan091964/page02.jp2" LOCTYPE="OTHER" OTHERLOCTYPE="SYSTEM"/>
        </file>
    </fileGrp>
</fileSec>
<structMap TYPE="physical" LABEL="Archivematica default">
    <div TYPE="directory" LABEL="Compound-6ef65864-d8ce-46df-b6e7-cd7d75498110">
        <div TYPE="directory" LABEL="objects">
            <div TYPE="directory" LABEL="Jan021964" DMDID="dmdSec_1 dmdSec_2">
                <div TYPE="item">
                    <fptr FILEID="page01.jp2-31e3ee5c-ff7a-4fb9-818d-e325345a5766"/>
                </div>
                <div TYPE="item">
                    <fptr FILEID="page02.jp2-626bc937-5a6e-4a32-adf4-7db7ab5a3e66"/>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div TYPE="directory" LABEL="Jan091964" DMDID="dmdSec_3 dmdSec_4">
                <div TYPE="item">
                    <fptr FILEID="page01.jp2-38e939e0-74fe-4ace-81ff-da4b89fa3481"/>
                </div>
                <div TYPE="item">
                    <fptr FILEID="page02.jp2-f42aaa1b-3816-45ed-9419-193474462481"/>
                </div>
            </div>
            <div TYPE="directory" LABEL="submissionDocumentation">
                <div TYPE="directory" LABEL="transfer-Compound-03e22333-4ce3-415f-adbf-9d392931bfb6"/>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</structMap>
</mets>

Importing rights metadata with rights.csv

Rights information can be associated to specific files in a transfer by creating a rights.csv file that conforms to the structure below.

You can enter multiple acts for the same rights basis. Rows for the same object with the same rights basis will be treated as separate acts for the basis and merged. For example, the first two rows below will be merged, while the third row will be separate. You can read more about rights metadata here: PREMIS metadata in Archivematica.

file basis status determination_date jurisdiction start_date end_date terms citation note grant_act grant_restriction grant_start_date grant_end_date grant_note doc_id_type doc_id_value doc_id_role
objects/image1.tif copyright copyrighted 2011-01-01 ca 2011-01-01 2013-12-31 Terms of copyright. Citation of copyright. Note about copyright. disseminate disallow 2011-01-01 2013-12-31 Grant note Copyright documentation identifier type. Copyright documentation identifier value. Copyright documentation identifier role.
objects/image1.tif copyright copyrighted 2011-01-01 ca 2011-01-01 2013-12-31 Terms of copyright. Citation of copyright. Note about copyright. use disallow 2011-01-01 2013-12-31 Grant note Copyright documentation identifier type. Copyright documentation identifier value. Copyright documentation identifier role.
objects/document.pdf license       2000-09-09 2010-09-08 Terms of license. Note about license. migrate allow     2000-09-00 Grant note License documentation identifier type. License documentation identifier value. License documentation identifier role.

The rights.csv file is parsed by the job “Load Rights” within the “Characterize and Extract Metadata” microservice run during transfer.

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Archivematica 1.8.1

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