Structuring your catalogue
Collaboration with end users helps identify the
Retention: Planning a realistic
shelf-life for your catalogue
best structure for your catalogue. For example,
Knowing the expected period of use for
a human rights lawyers may tell you they need
the following metadata: date and location of a
recorded crime, type of crime, officer ID and
videographer contact information. An advocate,
on the other hand, may need to know the name
of a victim or where a video was first published.
›› What information does each type of end
user need in order utilise the collection?
Consider involving end users in the
development process.
›› What is the minimum metadata set? What
elements are required, what is recommended,
what is optional?
›› How much time do you have to spend on
cataloguing?
›› Do you need to preserve and catalogue
chain of custody because your
your catalogue enables you to better plan
your project, allocate resources and define
project success.
›› How long will you maintain the catalogue?
Will you keep certain types of content longer
than other types?
›› What happens to the catalogue? Decide on a
succession plan: responsible disposal, handing
over of data, etc.
›› Is your retention policy realistic?
E.g. Can you afford to keep what you’re
planning to for as long as you’re planning to?
Will you have dedicated staffing to maintain,
update and monitor the content for the entire
life of the collection?
documentation might be used for criminal
Examples of platforms
prosecutions in the future?
›› Google Sheets/Google Forms
›› What information needs to be withheld for
security purposes?
›› Excel Spreadsheet
›› Filemaker Pro
›› Martus
›› Omeka
›› Corroborator
53
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents