Step-by-Step: Creating Your Collection Metadata
This tutorial walks you through creating the metadata spreadsheet that organizes your oral history collection and enables its display on the web.
What You’ll Create
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have:
- A complete metadata CSV file that catalogs all your interviews
- Proper connections between transcripts and media files
- Information that powers browsing, search, and display features
Before You Begin
Gather these materials:
- Information about each interview (dates, participants, locations, etc.)
- Any media URLs (YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.) if applicable
- 15-20 minutes of time
Tutorial Steps
Step 1: Get Started with a Template
- Download the template spreadsheet
- Click to download the demo-ohd-metadata.csv file, or browse all examples
- Save it to your computer
- Open in Google Sheets
- Go to sheets.google.com
- Click File → Import → Upload
- Select the downloaded template file
- Choose “Import data” when prompted
- Examine the structure
- Review the column headers in the first row
- Note the example entries in subsequent rows
- These show the format for each field
Step 2: Understand Required Fields
Every interview in your collection needs these three essential fields:
- objectid
- A unique identifier for each interview
- Use simple lowercase names with underscores (e.g., “smith_john”)
- Important: This MUST match your transcript filename
- title
- The complete title of the interview
- Be descriptive and consistent
- Example: “Interview with John Smith on Mining History”
- display_template
- Controls how the item displays
- Always set to “transcript” for interviews
Step 3: Add Your Interviews
- Create a new row for each interview
- Delete the example rows once you understand the format
- Add a new row for each interview in your collection
- Fill in the required fields
- Add the objectid, title, and display_template for each interview
- Make objectid values simple and URL-friendly
- Add recommended fields
- Complete additional fields for better display and searchability:
- interviewer: Person conducting the interview
- interviewee: Person being interviewed
- date: Interview date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
- description: Brief content summary (1-2 sentences)
- subject: Main topics (separated by semicolons)
- location: Where the interview took place
- Complete additional fields for better display and searchability:
To get a better idea of how this look, see our examples
Step 4: Connect Media (Optional)
If you have audio or video recordings:
- Prepare your media links
- For YouTube videos: Copy the video URL or ID
- For SoundCloud: Copy the track URL
- For local files: Note the filename
- Add to object_location field
- YouTube format:
https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
- SoundCloud format:
https://soundcloud.com/USER/TRACK_NAME
- Local file format:
/objects/filename.mp3
- YouTube format:
Step 5: Finalize and Save
- Review all entries
- Check that all required fields are completed
- Verify spelling and formatting
- Ensure objectids match your transcript filenames
- Save as CSV file
- Click File → Download → Comma-separated values (.csv)
- Name the file according to your preference (typically something like “project.csv” or “metadata.csv”)
- Upload to your repository
- Place the CSV file in the
_data/
folder - Update
_config.yml
to reference this filename if needed
- Place the CSV file in the
Example of a Complete Metadata File
Here’s how a metadata values might look with multiple entries (displayed vertically for easier reading–these will be in a spreadsheet when you enter them!):
object id: smith_john
title: "Interview with John Smith on Mining History"
display_template: transcript
interviewer: Sarah Johnson
interviewee: John Smith
date: 2023-05-15
description: John Smith discusses his 40-year career in local mines, focusing on safety improvements.
subject: mining; labor history; safety
location: Coalville, PA
object_location: https://youtu.be/BX_bURONf78
object id: garcia_maria
title: "Maria Garcia on Immigration and Education"
display_template: transcript
interviewer: David Lee
interviewee: Maria Garcia
date: 2023-06-10
description: Maria Garcia shares her experience immigrating to the US as a child and later becoming an educator.
subject: immigration; education; family
location: Phoenix, AZ
object_location: https://soundcloud.com/user/maria-garcia-interview
object id: taylor_robert
title: "Robert Taylor: Civil Rights Activism in the 1960s"
display_template: transcript
interviewer: Emily Wong
interviewee: Robert Taylor
date: 2023-04-22
description: Robert Taylor recounts his participation in civil rights demonstrations and community organizing.
subject: civil rights; activism; history
location: Atlanta, GA
object_location: