General principles
Be specific and descriptive. Avoid generic entries. Metadata exists to help people find and understand heritage items.
Write for discovery. Think about how someone searching the archive would describe this item. Include the terms they would use in the title, description, and subject tags — not just the terms that are obvious to you.
Be consistent. Apply the same conventions across all records in a collection: the same tag vocabulary, the same location names, the same date formats. Inconsistency breaks search and browsing.
Writing titles
A title is the first thing anyone sees. Make it count.- Keep titles concise but informative — under 100 characters is ideal
- Include the subject and context when possible
- Add a date or location to distinguish similar items
- Use the item’s original title if one exists
Before and after
- Good titles
- Titles to avoid
Writing descriptions
The description field is the most important field for discoverability and context. A good description tells the story behind the item. Answer these five questions in 2–5 sentences:What
What kind of item is this? What does it depict, record, or contain?
Who
Who is involved — as narrator, subject, creator, or community?
When
When did the event occur, or when was the item created?
Where
Where did it take place? Be as specific as possible within the camp.
Why
Why does this item matter? What themes or significance does it carry?
Example description
This description fromexamples/story.json demonstrates all five questions:
- What: oral history account
- Who: a Congolese family, the narrator
- When: 2015
- Where: Bukavu to Dzaleka Refugee Camp
- Why: themes of resilience, loss, and rebuilding
Choosing subject tags
Subject tags are keywords that power search and browsing. They are stored in thesubject array as lowercase strings.
Rules
- Do
- Don't
- Use 3–10 tags per record
- Include both broad terms (
oral history) and specific terms (Congo) - Add cultural terms where appropriate (
Great Lakes region) - Use lowercase for all tags
- Include the people, places, and themes central to the item
Suggested tag categories
Example from source
Thestory.json example uses seven well-chosen tags that span three categories:
oral history is the item type. Congo is the cultural origin. displacement, journey, resilience, community, and arrival are themes — all specific, all meaningful.
Location data
Thelocation object anchors an item in physical space. Consistent location names are essential for browsing by area.
Accepted camp area names
Always use the canonical names below for thearea field. Do not invent abbreviations or alternative spellings.
Coordinates
Dzaleka Refugee Camp approximate coordinates:
When you know the precise location of the item within the camp, provide specific coordinates. When you do not, use the camp-level coordinates above and rely on the
area field for specificity.
Example location object
Quality checklist
Before submitting a record, verify every item below. You can also rundms validate your-record.json to check schema compliance.
- Title is specific and descriptive — no generic labels like “Photo” or “Untitled”
-
typeis correctly chosen from the allowed values - Description answers What, Who, When, Where, and Why (2+ sentences)
-
languagecode is correct (e.g.,en,sw,fr,rw) - Creator(s) are listed with accurate roles
- At least 3 subject tags are included, all lowercase
-
location.nameis set;location.areauses a canonical camp area name -
rights.licenseandrights.access_levelare set appropriately - Consent has been obtained from all people featured in the record
- Record passes schema validation:
dms validate your-record.json