SolarSPELL Tagging Guidelines & Best Practices

Beginner Skills

Display Title of Resource

This is the name of the resource that will be displayed to the user on the public-facing library collection.
If the resource is in a language other than English, the title in the original language will go in this field. Then, translate the title into English and enter the English translation into the Title field.
- E.g. If you were to upload the French story "Le Petit Prince," you would put the French title in the Display Title field and "The Little Prince" in the Title field.
Transcribe the title, if there is one, from the resource itself, such as a caption from a photograph, a title on a map, or a description on an oral history recording.
When no title is found on the resource itself, use a title assigned by the contributing institution or found in reference sources.
- Create a descriptive and concise title indicating the nature of the resource (e.g., letter, diary) and/or its subject (e.g., names of persons, corporate bodies, objects, activities, events, geographical area). Generally, construct the title using the following order: Who, What, Where, When. Avoid generic titles such as “Papers” or “Annual report.”
When a title contains a misspelled word or inaccuracies add the corrected form of the title under Additional Notes.
The Display title field is populated exactly as shown in the resource itself, with only one exception:
- - Any titles with the numbers 1-9 must include a 0 before the number.
    Examples: Lesson 1 becomes Lesson 01 (Leçon 1 becomes Leçon 01)
    Chapter 6 becomes Chapter 06 (Capítulo 6 becomes Capítulo 06)
    Section IV becomes Section 04 (Sección IV becomes Sección 04)
    Volume II becomes Volume 02 (Volumen II becomes Volumen 02)

Tip: Use title case formatting. Unsure? Use this tool, select MLA style

EXAMPLE:

Additional Notes

This is the field where you would enter supplemental title information, if applicable, such as:
- - Abbreviated title
  - Subtitle
  - Parallel title or Variant title
  - Former title
  - If the resource is part of a series or collection of resources, include the collection title here.
    - for example, if the resource is a chapter or module lesson, you would include the name of the book or course name.

Tip: This is an optional field. If none of the above apply, it's OK to leave it empty!

EXAMPLE:

Subtype of Resource

This is the field that further describes the characteristic(s) or purpose(s) of the resource, in more granular detail.
Choose one or more, as needed, from this list of SolarSPELL standardized descriptor terms:

--Activity
--Article
--Audio
--Audio Book
--Book
--Curriculum
--Fact Sheet
--Guide
--Image(s)
--Lecture
--Lesson Plan
--Manual
--Map
--Poster
--Presentation
--Report
--Song, Verse, Poem
--Story
--Syllabus
--Test, Assessment
--Textbook
--Video

Tip: Subtype is a recommended but not mandatory field, meant to be used in conjunction with Type.

Year Resource Published

This is the year that the item was created or published.
Use (4) numerals only - No month or day information is necessary.

Tip: If year of creation/ publication cannot be determined, leave this field empty.

EXAMPLE:

Special Tips for Video Resources

Metadata such as the title and date of publication will often be found in the description of the original video. If not, try searching for information within the video.
To have ChatGPT help pull metadata for you, and if you can't upload the video itself, please upload the link and title and ChatGPT should pull the information you need
- The year is one of the most commonly incorrect pieces of information pulled by ChatGPT, so make sure to double check it
- ChatGPT and AI are not perfect--do not assume that all the information they provide is correct. Make sure to always confirm the metadata they provide! This is especially true with resources in languages other than English.

Beginner Skills Practice

Test your understanding of the Beginner tagging skills with this practice.

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