Uploader Guide

This admin guide is intended as a reference tool for those users who are responsible for uploading content to the archive. Users with access to these pages will have already received training (or who are in the process of receiving it), so this will act as a means of refreshing existing knowledge rather than teaching new concepts.

Understanding metadata

Metadata is simply “data [information] that provides information on other data”, and without it, a database (or in this case, an archive) is near useless. Without useful metadata an archive is simply a bin of material, which is only useful if you’re willing to look at everything in order to find that one item you actually want.

Other than providing a space to save the content we create, the most beneficial aspect of this archive is that it is fully searchable.

For example: imagine you are speaking to a donor and they are interested in how media can be used to promote awareness of potential health problems during pregnancy…

The traditional method would be to ask everyone you can to see if they know of any examples – and then once they (hopefully) recall an example you would then have to request that footage from the original source, which may take days to arrive – if indeed it still exists.

With a fully searchable archive you would open your web browser, type in keywords like “Pregnancy” and “Health” and the whole catalogue will be searched and filtered, showing you everything that’s relevant and everything you can download.

Simple – if all the metadata has been captured correctly.

For those who upload the data this means there is an extra step to follow before the media is accepted – understanding this is vital if we are to make the most of this archive.