Working with Multi-part Repository Items

Last Updated, April 11, 2023.

Multi-part repository items are those that function as containers for other repository items but are NOT collections in themselves. These include the Paged Content, Newspaper, Publication Issue, and Compound Object content types.

Each of these Content Types consist of a Parent items of the defined Content Type and Child Items specific to their parent types:

You may add and remove child items to parent items at any time, rearrange their order, and do other housekeeping tasks after creating them, but it is good practice to have the entire set of parents and children ready to go when you start.

There are two workflows that create multi-part repository items, either through the browser form, and through spreadsheet ingest. The browser form may be best for multi-part objects (such as compound objects) that have a small number of children, while spreadsheet is best when creating a multi-part objects with many children (paged content, publication issues, newspaper issues). 

Creating a Multi-part Repository Item Manually

Parent items like Compound Objects or Publication Issues are containers for other component repository items. This example uses the Compound Object as its example, but any multi-part object has the same parent-child relationships. 

Creating a compound object from content that is NOT already in the repository

1. Click on Create or Add content buttons anywhere in the system. This will bring you to the metadata form.
2. Start filling out the Required Fields
   1. In the Content Type field dropdown, select "Compound Object" from the drop down list
   2. In the Collections field, begin typing the name of the collection to which your object will belong. Choose from the auto complete suggestion. 
   3. Continue filling out the required fields, for Rights Statement, if the items in the compound object have different copyright statuses, choose "Rights Determined at item Level" 
   4. In Held By, start typing the name of your Organization or Group and select from the auto complete suggestion. 
3. Fill out any remaining fields as you wish. 
4. UNCHECK Add media, 
5. Click Save. Your object will be created.

Now add the components, or children, of your compound object. 

1. Click on the "Children" tab at the top menu bar
2. Click on the "Add child" button on the top right of the screen
3. Click on Repository Item

This brings you to a metadata form you can fill in for your child object. It works just like any other metadata form, except that the "collection" field is pre-filled with the name of your parent object. Continue as you would for Adding Items to the Repository One at a Time and for Adding and Working With Media

Repeat this step from the Parent item for each object you wish to add to the compound.

Creating a compound object from content that is IS already in the repository

• Navigate to any repository object that is eligible to be part of a compound object. 
• Click on Edit
• In the Metadata form Scroll to the "Collection" field
• Either change the value in the collection field to the name of the compound object or click "Add Another Collection" and put in the name of the compound object with which you want to associate this existing item. 

NOTE:

• Although intellectually compound objects are not collections, since they are containers the system thinks of them that way.
• Repository items may belong to any number of compound objects. 

Batch Create Multi-part Objects and Their Children

See the page Adding Items in Bulk Using a Spreadsheet for instructions on batch creating multi-part objects.