Element: Unique Identifier Revised

After getting some good comments I have updated my guide lines for the Element: Identifier

Label
Identifier

Element Description
This element specifically and uniquely designates the record to provide disambiguation and exact recall.

Required?
Yes

Repeatable?
No

Guidelines for Creation of Content
The unique identifier will be built off of the file name of the image. Copy all of the file name except the file type i.e. “.jpg” into the Element and add “_Alabama_vs_” right before the name of the opposing school.

Examples
75_Alabama_vs_Southern_Mississippi_059
MFB_Alabama_vs_Texas09_KG01616

Let me know what you guys think!

Element: Unique Identifier

Hey guys, here is my thoughts for guidelines for the Unique Identifier field let me know what you think.

Label
Unique Identifier

Element Description
This element specifically and uniquely designates the record to provide disambiguation and exact recall.

Required?
Yes

Repeatable?
No

Guidelines for Creation of Content
The unique identifier will be built off of the file name of the image. Copy all of the file name except the file type into the Element and add “_Alabama_vs_” right before the name of the opposing school. For the black and white images include a lower case ‘b’ at the end of the name to indicate that the scan is the second iteration of the image.

Examples
75_Alabama_vs_Southern_Mississippi_059
MFB_Alabama_vs_Texas09_KG01616
MFB_Alabama_vs_Texas09_KG01637b

Let me know what you guys think!

Keeping Track of the Versions

File naming is an important aspect of data management. Creating files that are systematically named ensures that files are easy to access, that edits are tracked, and that old versions of files don’t accidentally overwrite new versions. As I’m considering using files names of images to serve as a unique identifiers in our schema file naming is something to blog about. ensuring that one file does not accidentally overwrite another file in a different location when either file is moved is a concern. One way to manage this is to keep careful track of any changes made to the file by editing the file name with an addendum either a final number which can be changed to reflect the number of the version or by using an alphabetical variant a,b,c etc. My classmate shows a great example of this in her blog here.

When building our schema, we are trying to consider making sure that the data and elements are relevant and clear even if the files were shared and used in another database. If the other library also used file names as unique identifier there could be duplication in the records. To make sure that our files were clear and unique Dr. MacCall recommended putting some identifier that Alabama was playing, as the current file names only list the opposing teams. I suggest we enter something like this “Alabama_vs_” into the middle of the file name right before the opponent name. As a further way to reduce duplication or to simply follow naming protocol we could add a letter to the end of the file name especially for the scanned photos to indicate that they were not taken digitally. Thoughts?

File name as Unique Identifier?

In many ways I think I got the easiest element of the schema. I simply have to create rules for assigning a unique identifier for each image. I think Dr. MacCall had a good idea from class about simply using the file names of the images as a unique ID. He also suggested adding some identifier of Alabama so that if our schema is used in other databases both the home and opponent names could be known from the unique ID. I think using the file name has a lot of merit as the file names have a lot of good information already embedded into it. The three digit numbers at the end of the file name are likely simply the number of pictures taken and that number might give valuable information as to the image’s relation to other pictures in the game. For instance two of my photos are one number after the other and may be in the same play. This information could be useful when trying to identify relationships between photos.

Unique Identifiers

The entire point of the unique identifier is, as the name suggests, to create a unique code to specify each record in a database or collection. Having this unique identifier allows a user to disambiguate records, create specific searches, link records and more. However, creating a unique identifier can be a little more complicated. A unique ID can be as simple as a number that has no relation to the record or object. In other cases the ID can hold information relating to the object ranging from accession number to date and subject information.