Here at The Open University Library I have developed and implemented with
some success file naming guidelines in order to support the use of the
Document Management System (Livelink) we have implemented in the library.
Note this system is only used in the Libray (around 90 users) and is not a
university wide system.
My main message would be to keep them as simple and concise as possible. I
have found users are keen on the idea of file naming conventions but when
it comes to following them there are varying degrees of take-up.
I started to write guidelines for the library based on this toolkit
developed by our Records Manager.
The toolkit advised having file type acronyms in the file name e.g.
agn - agenda
min - minutes
I took the above advice a bit too literally in my the first version of the
guidelines I wrote and ended up over time with 3 pages of document type
acronymns. This (as you woudl guess) was too large and unwieldy for the
average user to follow. The guidelines I have now take this list back to
about 8-10 of the most common types used within the Library.
I emphasise to users the need to name files in ways that it would be easy
for others users to find them but also for users to be able to identify (as
much as possible) from a filename whether or not it is a document they are
looking for.
We also use ISO date format for filenames that would include a date e.g.
minutes of meetings, agendas etc. this is useful both for browsing through
a foldrer of minutes but also for searching.
My own experience is that general take up and use of such guidelines among
users is quite different. Some take to them and use them rigourously,
ohters tend to try but fail and some just wont use them at all.
I tend to try and work very closely with users to ensure they are useable
and help with any problems they have with using such guidelines.
As I have said I would keep them as simple and concise as possible and work
with users as they are the ones that are goping to be asked to use and
follow such guidelines.
Hope this helps
David
Information Management Officer
The Open University Library
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