SobekCM METS Files: Concepts and Preparation

SobekCM Identifiers

When loading items through the SobekCM Builder, you must assign a valid SobekCM identifier and include it in the METS. (When submitting an item online, the system will assign you the next identifier automatically.) A SobekCM Identifier is composed of two different identifiers, a BibID (or Bibliographic Idenifier) and a VID ( or Volume Identifier). This arrangement allows for efficient handling of multivolume sets. For example, for a newspaper there will be a single BibID for the entire title, but different VIDs for each volume within that title. Each subelement has their own rules to follow.

BibID (Bibliographic Identifier)

The BibID portion of the SobekCM Identifier is 10 digits long. It must be alphanumeric and begin with two characters. The final four spaces must be numeric. Valid identifiers are UF00000001, UFE0000001, CARICO1234, etc...

Below is the regular expression that can be used for matching BibIDs:

[A-Z]{2}[A-Z|0-9]{4}[0-9]{4}

VID (Volume Identifier)

The volume identifier is a five digit number, less than 64000. This should be left padded with zeros to guarantee five digits. Valid identifiers are 00001, 00002, 00003, etc..

Complete SobekCM Identifier

The BibID and VID should be joined by an underscore. So, if an items BibID is UF00000001 and the VID is 00002, then the complete SobekCM Identifier is 'UF00000001_00002'.

A regular expression to match the complete identifier is roughly:

[A-Z]{2}[A-Z|0-9]{4}[0-9]{4}_[0-9]{5}

Files and Folders

All resource files and the folders should appear within the same folder, without subfolders. The METS file should reference all the files in the folder. Unless the METS file is flagged as PARTIAL, METADATA_UPDATE, or DELETE, every file referened in the METS should be present in the same folder.

The folder should be the SobekCM Identifier and the METS file name should also be the SobekCM Identifier. Valid METS file extensions are currently *.mets.xml and *.mets.