Add a digital item

 Roles: Users must have the Administrator, Collection manager, Collection editor, or Collection builder role to add items in CONTENTdm (new version). Users assigned the Collection editor role can only add items to their scoped collections. Users with the Collection builder role can save items as drafts but cannot publish them.  Refer to CONTENTdm (new version) roles.

A digital item is a single file, such as an image, a PDF, audio, or video, with descriptive metadata. For a faster, simpler version of this workflow, refer to Quick add. To add several files as a single item, refer to Add a compound item. To add multiple files at once, refer to Add multiple digital items.

Before you start, make sure the file is prepared and accessible on your computer. The file must not exceed 5 GB.

To add a digital item:

1. From the Content management > Add items, select which collection to add the item to from the Collection drop-down.
   • The default collection is displayed initially, but the last collection in which items were added will subsequently appear in your session.
2. Click Add digital item under the Add more details heading.
3. On the Add an item screen, select your file by dropping it in the drop area or selecting browse files. A preview of the file appears.
4. Click Next.
5. (Optional) Add a transcript. Choose one of the following:
   1. Choose whether to run optical character recognition (OCR) on the batch. Generate transcript with OCR is on by default, or set to your last choice.
      • OCR should only be run on image and PDF files. OCR will not override provided transcripts.
      • When OCR is on, items without a matching transcript file are processed with OCR.
   2. Upload a .txt transcript file for some or all of the items. You can drag and drop your transcript file in the drop area or click Upload transcript file to select a file from your device.
      • You can upload a single transcript text (.txt) file that must not exceed 1 MB.
      • Each transcript file is matched to the item with the same file name.
      • Transcript files that do not match an item are skipped and listed in the Error log, along with any files that are empty, too large, or not .txt files.
6. Click Next.
7. Add metadata. Enter the properties for the collection. Required fields are noted with an asterisk (*).
   • Refer to Metadata for more information.
   • The properties you enter come from the collection's metadata template. Title is always required.
   • Only the metadata properties with a value will appear to end-users on the public-facing site.
8. Determine whether to save the item as a draft or publish directly:
   • Select Save as draft to save this item in My drafts for later review and editing. Drafts are specific to the user who created them and are not shared across the site.
   • Select Publish to publish the item to the collection.

After you select Save as draft or Publish, a message confirms that the item was saved, and the item's detail page opens.

The item is in processing and cannot be edited, published, or deleted until processing is complete. To check the status, refer to the Process manager. If the file cannot be processed, the error appears in the Error log.

After you add a digital item, you can change its metadata, or the metadata of an individual page, from My drafts or Published items. Refer to Edit draft items and Edit published items.