This page covers the process of adding new objects to Credo, starting from the point when scanning and metadata is complete. Before we outline the process, here are some general tips:

1. Add objects to Credo in manageable batches: keep the number of objects you batch ingest to a reasonable amount (100s rather than 1000s). This makes uploading and troubleshooting much easier. For example, if you are digitizing a multi-box collection, add new items per box as each box is completed.
2. Check error report regularly: Credo produces an error report every morning at 6:00am. Take a look in the morning after you've added files to Credo to make sure they all went in ok. The error report can be found here: http://credo.library.umass.edu/errorreport.html

There is a script used for preparing metadata for ingest that lives on r:/credo/metadata/utilities/mods/mods called mods.exe. It is easiest if you put a ticket into Systems to have this script moved to a folder in your PATH. They will know what this means. Unfortunately, this can only be done by someone with admin privileges to your computer.

This script can do a whole bunch of mildly useful things but for the purpose of preparing metadata, it:

1. Checks for a number of critical errors in the metadata, including malformed dates, double-quotes in titles, or validity issues.
2. Adds IDs and URLs to records

The script must be run on every item before it is ingested into Credo. It's also probably wise to run again if items have been edited.

To prepare a batch of files for ingest you will need to run two separate commands:

$ mods -c [folder]

This will check all files in a specified folder for errors. If the script returns to the prompt without displaying any information, the files in the folder are ok.

$ mods -Iwu [folder]

This will add the IDs and URLs to the MODS records. Once both of these commands have been run, the files are ready for Credo.

Once the files are prepared, they need to be uploaded to Credo.

1. Log into the Credo server via SFTP. The server name is credo.library.umass.edu, the username is fedora, and Aaron R. will give you the password.
2. Upload the metadata and object files to the appropriate folder. If you are adding to an existing collection, add the files to the pre-existing folder. If you are creating a new collection, add a top-level collection folder, upload the files there, and follow the steps to add a new collection to Credo.
3. Add a copy of all the metadata files for the objects you would like to ingest into the 'ingest' folder. Ingest runs once an hour and will only add 100 objects per hour. You will know an object has been ingested if the file disappears from the ingest folder.

It's generally easiest to drag actual metadata files into the ingest folder but it's worth knowing that the ingest process doesn't care, as long as there is a file with the object PID and the extension '.xml'. The file can be empty or something completely different. Credo trivia!