File Naming Conventions
This document provided guidelines on the naming of files for submission to SCOLR.
Please contact SCOLR staff if you have any questions.
Quick Examples
| Type of Work | Name of File |
| Text with single author | Smith_John_2015 |
| Text with multiple authors | Smith_John_et_al_2015 |
| Text with Agency/Organization as author | Ministry_Environment_2015 |
| Image | Smith_John_img001 OR History_Collection_img001 |
| Audio | Smith_John_clip001 OR History_Collection_clip001 |
| Video | Smith_John_clip001 OR History_Collection_clip001 |
General Principles
File names in SCOLR should
- be unique
- have less than 50 characters
- omit "stop words": a, an, the, if, or, for, etc.
- have no spaces
- use letters, numbers and the underscore (_) or dash (-) only
- use the underscore to separate words and the dash to separate numbers
Most works should be saved using the creators name in the format LastName_FirstName followed by the year of creation or publication. If the creator has multiple works from the same year additional information should be added to differentiate; either with the month and day of creation or a short form of the title (ex. Smith_John_2015-06-30 or Smith_John_History_Kootenays).
If a work has multiple authors or creators save using the first person listed with "et_al" following.
Works that form a series such as photos or interviews should be named using the creators name in the format LastName_FirstName followed by a sequential number (see example above). In the even that the creator is unknown a title may be used instead.
Files may be renamed based on accession number, particularly those related to the archives.