The Ins and Outs of File Naming

While metadata can often come in forms that are increasingly technical and complicated, there are also many forms that are simple to use and understand, and encountered by many of us on an almost daily basis. However, even simplicity and accessibility provide no guarantee that metadata will be used properly, as is evidenced by a form of metadata we are almost all familiar with, and commonly misuse...electronic file names. Rather than take full advantage of this gem of an organizational, and retrieval, tool for our computers and devices, we instead clog up document folders with endless batches of "Untitled" documents, and incredibly useful file descriptions such as "receipt", "Agenda," or "list." If you, like me, have failed to show adequate appreciation for this easy-to-use metadata tool, then take heart that the State Library of North Carolina has come to rescue us with a series of four short videos on File Naming Guidelines.

The SLNC covers a variety of basic topics related to file naming, including: why it is important, how to alter existing file names, and some best practices to follow, as well as some to avoid. Though some of the information is fairly intuitive and already familiar to users, the videos do provide suggestions and warnings that otherwise may not have been considered. For example, failing to create unique file names for automatically-named files (i.e. digital photos uploaded from a camera) could lead to important files or documents being overwritten and lost, though most modern operating systems have some measure of protection against such an eventuality. Also of interest are the suggestions for characters to avoid in creating file names, including: most special characters (e.g. !, ?, /, $, and the like due to their use in programming languages), spaces (the underscore special character is an acceptable alternative), and capital letters (software often makes no distinction between case). Among the best practices I found most helpful was the recommendation to include a consistently formatted date in file names, which can provide valuable context when searching through old files.

Though not discussed in the videos, I feel that the guidelines provided would also be particularly useful to organizations concerned with long-term preservation, or storage, of electronic files. Naming practices have a considerable impact on the ability of an archivist or records custodian to make sense of the original use, function, organization, and order of electronic documents. Absent a logical and consistent naming scheme, attempts to organize the documents into a meaningful collection can be severely compromised.