C OLLEGE OF A GRICULTURE D ATA C OHORT F ILE / F OLDER NAMING C ONVENTIONS M ARCH 24, 2014 Jake Carlson Associate Professor of Library Science / Data Services Specialist Marianne Stowell Bracke Associate Professor of Library Science / Agricultural Sciences Information Specialist

WHAT WILL BE COVERED An introduction to terms, concepts and best practices relating to file naming conventions. An example of developing a file / folder naming convention for a research project.

WHAT IS A NAMING CONVENTION? A means of communicating descriptive & useful information through the name given to a particular file. Well chosen naming conventions can help you and other users easily identify the content of a file and how the file relates to other files in the collection.

EXAMPLE OF A NAMING CONVENTION Graphic & Quote: “One of the challenges of having a lot of digitized documents and photographs is organizing all of this "stuff" in a file system… I use a naming convention consisting of Name (GivenMILast), Date, Record type, Other Info”

CRAFTING A NAMING CONVENTION Naming conventions are often composed of multiple elements Graphic:

CRAFTING A NAMING CONVENTION Establishing an effective file naming convention is an investment of time and effort. It should be based on your articulated needs as well as your team. Graphic:

CRAFTING A NAMING CONVENTION There are no perfect naming conventions, but there are some basic rules that can help. Graphic:

IDENTIFY DISTINCTIONS IN YOUR DATA Identify the important distinctions and commonalities between your data files. Your Data Lifecycle and Data Mgmt Plan can help.

RULES: BALANCE Find the right balance of elements: Too few elements create ambiguity Too many limit discovery & understanding. Graphic: /sizes/o/ /sizes/o/

RULES: ABREVIATE Too many characters can be unwieldy and cause problems in transferring files. Use meaningful abbreviations Err on the side of brevity Graphic: 128/sizes/l/ 128/sizes/l/

RULES: DOCUMENT Document your decisions: What elements you will use What are appropriate entries What acronyms mean Etc. Graphic: /sizes/l/ /sizes/l/

RULES: DEFINE THE ORDER Decide on the order in which the elements should appear: Start general, move to specific Dates should be in YYYYMMDD Graphic: cart nkbkyx.jpg cart nkbkyx.jpg

RULES: CONSISTENCY Graphic: A file naming convention breaks down if not followed consistently. At the same time, try to leave some room for flexibility

RULES: COMPLETENESS Graphic: Your files are going to move some day. Will you be able to identify your files outside of their original folder or context?

RULES: VERSIONING Graphic: You may need to include more than a date to uniquely ID your files. Indicate versions with a “v” then a number Do not use “final”, “new”, “update” in file names.

EXERCISE Begin to develop folder / file naming conventions for your own data according to best practices. Be sure to consider who else might access your data, both within and outside of the lab. What would they need to know in order to understand your data files and how they relate to each other?

RESOURCES North Carolina Dept of Cultural Resources (2008) “Best Practices for File-Naming” enaming.pdf enaming.pdf Santaguida, V. (2010) “Folder and File Naming Convention – 10 Rules for Best Practice” convention-ten-rules-best-practice convention-ten-rules-best-practice Smith, E. (2011) “Folder Hierarchy Best Practices for Digital Asset Management” les/best-practices-for-folder-organization/ les/best-practices-for-folder-organization/