Working with Email Metadata

EASi allows you to assign administrative and descriptive metadata to email messages and attachments before this content is uploaded to the DRS. Metadata can be added to a single item via the item's Full Display, or added to a group of items via the Brief Display.

Tip: Attachments have their own metadata fields and do not inherit metadata from their associated message. But you can assign the same metadata to message and attachment by using bulk metadata editing.

For definitions and values of individual metadata fields, consult the Metadata Reference section in Appendix A.

Bulk editing a group of items

Bulk editing involves making the same changes to a group of items using options on the Brief Display. Bulk editing can be a time saver, especially when you need to add the same metadata to a message and related attachments. Edits are saved in real time and are viewable/searchable immediately.

Tips about bulk editing:

• Visibility of existing metadata is limited. When editing metadata on an item's Full Display, you can see existing values easily before making changes. When bulk editing a group of items, your view of metadata assigned to those items is more limited. To improve your view, try exposing additional metadata columns in the results list (hover over column headings to get a list). Also, click the lightbulb icon next to a field in the metadata editing panel to see the values assigned to items in the selected set.
• Limits on removing metadata. Complex fields (review date and rights) can be removed in their entirety but individual components cannot be removed separately. Public and non-public notes cannot be removed during bulk editing.
• Saving edits to large groups takes time. For large groups of items (more than a few hundred), there may be a brief delay while the system saves metadata changes. EASi will display an Update Item pop-up window while saving is in process.

Here is the procedure for bulk editing from the Brief Display.

 1.  Perform a search and/or apply filters until you have an appropriate result set.

 2.  Select items in the results list to be edited.

 * To select individually, click on the row or checkbox of eligible items.

 * To auto-select all items on the current results page, click the check box above the Select column.

 * To auto-select all items in the results set, click the Select check box above the list and then click the "Select all xxx search results" link.

 * Tip: When all items in the results set are auto-selected, avoid deselecting individual items or any selections beyond the first page will be lost.

 3.  Open the metadata panel by clicking the edit metadata link above the results list.

 4.  [Optional] Click the lightbulb icon next to a metadata field to expose any existing values assigned to items in the selected set.

5.  Make metadata selections as needed. Within a single bulk edit activity, you can perform multiple edits.

Some metadata fields can be edited directly, but for most you need to click an icon to open an editing window. Here is a key to the edit icons:

  Add metadata values to items in the selected set.

 Remove a metadata value from items in the selected set.

 Replace metadata values. Use this option to replace metadata values in a selected set of items. You can use Replace to add, change, or remove values for all items in a set, or for items in the set with a particular metadata value. In this release, Replace has been implemented for single-value fields: Accession ID, Billing code, Collection, DRS access flag, Processing level, and Series.

 Clear all values in the selected metadata field for items in the selected set.

6.  Click the Save button to commit the changes. An Update Item pop-up window will display.

 If the Save button is not highlighted, click anywhere on the metadata panel to activate it.

7.  When the pop-up changes to Update Complete, click OK to clear the window.

8.  If you need to close the metadata panel, click the close form link next to the Save button.

Editing a single item

The metadata for messages and attachments can be edited from the Full Display of the item. Edits are saved in real time and are viewable/searchable immediately. Here is the procedure:

1. On the results list, click the EASi ID of the item to be edited. A Full Display of the item will open in a new browser window or tab.
2. Make metadata selections as needed. Within a single bulk edit activity, you can perform multiple edits. See the Metadata Reference appendix for definitions of each metadata element.
3. Click the Save button to commit the changes. If the Save button is not highlighted, click anywhere on the Full Display to activate it.

Handling rights metadata

This section describes the initial EASi implementation of rights and access metadata, which is part of a broader project to add support for rights metadata to the new release of DRS ("DRS 2").

The "Rights" segment of email metadata is where the curator specifies the terms and restrictions on email content stored in the DRS. Rights metadata is optional and should be applied to email messages and/or attachments as needed.

About rights metadata

An EASi rights segment includes:

• Rights basis: the statute, license, policy, etc. that is the basis for the rights granted and any restrictions associated with the content. These values for rights basis have been defined so far:
  • Harvard policy: rights and restrictions that derive from Harvard policies (e.g., HU Archive's "Corporation Vote of March 13, 1995").
  • License: legal agreement between two or more parties (e.g., contracts, donor agreements).
  • Risk assessment: rights and restrictions that arise from a curator's judgement (e.g., risk assessment in the absence of specific license, statute, or policy).
  • Statute: governmental regulations and laws (federal, state, city, etc.).
• Document: a link to a document stored in the DRS that documents the selected rights basis. The document dropdown list contains the DRS owner supplied names of rights documents available in your owner code or the HL shared owner code (H.LIB.SHARED).
• Document note: a free text document note if additional information about the basis documentation is needed.
• Restrictions that apply to the content as derived from the basis. Two types of restrictions can be specified:
  • Secure storage restriction: If content is deemed sensitive, the curator can specify that it be stored on a secure network. Selecting secure storage will initiate an automated system action (storage on secure network, or not, as indicated).

By default, all content imported into EASi will have a default rights segment that designates it as requiring "secure storage (unconfirmed)" using the "risk assessment" rights basis. If review indicates the content is indeed sensitive, you should change the value to "secure storage (confirmed)". If deemed not sensitive, you should delete the rights segment.

Note: Both the "confirmed" and "unconfirmed" options will trigger secure storage. Leaving this option set to "unconfirmed" is an indication that the content was not reviewed before being archived.

• • Delivery embargo restriction: Includes start date, end date, and duration of an embargo on access to the content. Note that currently, embargo metadata is informational and there is no automated system action associated with it. Access is still determined by the DRS access code ("P" for Public, "R" for Restricted to Harvard Community, or "N" for no access except to an authorized DRS account-holder). Also, in a later prototype a curator will be able to supply two embargo values and EASi will derive the third value.

If there is more than one basis that applies to a message or attachment, you can create multiple rights segments. For example, if a statue and a license both apply to a message, create a separate rights segment for each.

Viewing rights metadata

In full display, look for the "Rights " area in the metadata panel. Each rights segment is represented by a display label comprised of the rights basis plus the related rights documentation. Mouse over this label to view the details. Note that when you mouse over, only the fields actually completed by the curator will display.

This example illustrates the default "risk assessment" rights segment that is assigned to all content imported to EASi:

This example illustrates a rights segment that uses the "Harvard policy" basis.

In the brief display, there are six rights-related metadata columns: rights doc, rights doc note, secure storage, embargo start date, embargo end date, and embargo duration. Expose some or all of these columns if you want to see rights metadata associated with items in the results list.

Adding or deleting a rights segment

You can add or delete rights segments but it is not possible to edit an existing rights segment. Instead of editing an existing segment, you will need to create a new segment with the needed values and delete the unwanted segment.

Adding a new rights segment:

You can add a rights segment from the brief or full display.

1. Click +add to open the rights information data entry form.
2. Select a rights basis. This field is required to save the rights segment.
3. Select a rights document that corresponds to the basis. This field is required if the selected basis is policy, license, or statue.
   Click the down arrow to display a list of DRS2 object owner supplied names (OSN) of rights documents available in your owner code or in the HL shared owner code (H.LIB.SHARED). Click to select the appropriate document.
4. Add a document note if needed. This might be a note that clarifies the applicable section of the rights document.
5. Add embargo data if needed.
   Note: Enter data in all fields (embargo duration, start date, end date).
6. Select a secure storage option if needed. Select “required: confirmed” if you verified the need for secure storage. Select “required: unconfirmed” if you did not review content before assigning secure storage. Selecting either value will result in the use of DRS2 secure storage.
7. Click the Add button to complete this rights segment.
8. Back on the metadata panel, click the Save button to save this change.

Deleting a rights segment:

1. Open the full display of a message or attachment.
   
2. Click the red x next to the rights segment you want to delete. The segment label will display as crossed out.
3. .Click the Save button to save this change.