Quick Summary
The Minnesota Digital Library added three new standards and best practices guidelines to its website: Metadata Guidelines Version 8.0, Master Images Care and Maintenance, and Best Practices for Naming Electronic Records.
New MDL Metadata Guidelines Version 8.0
The Minnesota Digital Library is excited to share our latest version of our Metadata Entry Guidelines. We released version 8.0 earlier this spring and it is now a more accessible Google document rather than a PDF. This change allows for real-time edits, which means updates will happen more frequently and more quickly.
We also restructured the document and made it easier to understand and navigate. The Guidelines now feature a hyperlinked Table of Contents and section headings. Technical Metadata was moved to an appendix - as most of our partners do not create their own technical metadata. We also created new examples, added new physical formats, and double-checked all links.
Master Images Care and Maintenance
MDL is also pleased to share a recent document we created on the care and maintenance of master image files. This document is designed to help users plan for the storage, organization, and management of their digital masters. It includes tips on ways to protect master files into the future and includes a list of additional resources.
Best Practices for Naming Electronic Records
Another new addition is a guide to file naming best practices. Giving descriptive and unique names to digital files makes them easier to access and preserve over the long term. This document provides examples of how to approach file naming to achieve best results.
These three documents join our other guides in the Standards and Best Practices tab of the Minnesota Digital Library website.
