FAQ13

File naming protocols

Whether the scanning is outsourced or done in-house, if the proposed project deals with a significant number of images, a standard file naming convention is essential to maintain control of the inventory of scanned images and to monitor the workflow. To ensure long-term access to the data following strict ISO-9660 standard file naming conventions is recommended. Within this constraint, a file name that is easily understood and contains information about the file contents is useful. An example is a file name of a scanned journal which contains the year, issue number and page number of the journal. It is also useful if using the TIFF image file format to specify several data fields within the TIFF file header to be populated with data chosen to ensure long-term inventory control over the image files as well as other technical data on the scanner settings and file compression used to create the image and archival data such as the date of scanning.