Naming XML files
The APA citation format for archival material in the collection is as follows:
Thomas G. Carpenter Library, Special Collections and Archives, Eartha M.M. White Collection, Box A-A5, Folder A1, Item 342.
This reflects the structure of the archive: at the highest level is the collection itself, organized into boxes, with each box containing folders and each folder containing items. We will follow this same logic to create a unique filename for each document. For the document referenced above, our filename would be ew_a1_342.xml, where ew is the collection, a1 is the folder and 342 is the item. Note that we have left off a box number here. This is because in the case of the Eartha M.M. White Archive the box numbers consist of folder numbers (like Box A-A5 above, for instance) which run sequentially across the collection, instead of starting over within each new box. It would therefore be redundant to include box numbers. They are omitted as well on the archive’s container list. Why doesn’t the Eartha White Archive have more standard box and folder numbers? This collection was processed in 1975, so it predates the current APA standard for cataloging archival collections.
If you’re working with an excerpt from a larger document contained iin its entirely in the archive, such as a magazine or newspaper, please indicate the page numbers of your selection in the filename as follows: ew_d1_330_29-30.xml (this would be a transcription of just pages 29 and 30 of the article labeled Folder D1, Item 330.
Please make file names entirely lower case.
Naming image files
We will follow the same protocol as above for naming image files. You’ll be taking working images of the documents that you want to transcribe with your phone or digital camera. Once you have these transferred the images to your computer, you’ll need to rename them. Let’s imagine that the document referenced above consisted of three pages. We would name the images as follows:
ew_a1_342_001.jpg
ew_a1_342_002.jpg
ew_a1_342_003.jpg
In other words, the same filename as used for the XML file, followed by _ (underscore) and then three consecutive digits. Note that depending on the settings of your camera, your file extension may be something other than .jpg (such as .png, etc.). That is fine. The staff of Special Collections will be preparing high-quality reproductions of the images that will ultimately replace your working images, so there is no need to convert your images to a particular format (or crop/edit them, for that matter).
If you are cropping a selection out of a larger file (such as a graphic), please add another node as follows:
ew_w2_648_002_001.jpg
This would be the first graphic taken from Folder W2, Item 684, image 2.
Please make file names entirely lower case.
