...
If you are not yet familiar with the batch metadata editing process for ScholarWorks, please consult the training documentation created by David Walker.
Shortcut links to the more detailed updates on and instructions for each field are below.
Field #1: Title (December 2021-January 2022)
...
Download the .zip file for your campus. Contact David if you don’t have that URL.
There is a separate CSV file within the .zip file for each data model/work form, of which we currently have four: dataset, educational resource, publication, and thesis. If your campus will be cleaning up Title metadata for more than just ETDs, you will need to complete the following clean up steps for each CSV separately.
For each CSV file, download it and save it locally. Then delete all fields (columns) except for id (column A) and title (column I).
Copy all metadata in the title column and paste it into Notepad or a similar program of your choice to strip out unwanted formatting.
Then paste that text into the text box on the homepage of Then open a Google Sheet, click File > Import, click the Upload tab, and select or drag and drop the CSV file into the window. As shown in the screenshot below, be sure to uncheck the “Convert text to numbers, dates, and formulas” option before clicking “Import data.”
Then copy data from the Title field and paste it into the Title Case Converter. Note: The converter does not have an explicit character limit, but it seems to work best with approximately 500 or fewer words, so you may will probably need to do this in batches.
Select the title case style your campus has decided to use. If your titles are in all caps, you will also want to uncheck the “Keep Words in All Caps” option. Then click the “Convert” button.
Once the conversion is complete, you will be taken to a list of converted titles. Click the “Copy All” button.
Back in the CSV fileGoogle Sheet, add a new column Column C (you can name it “title_revised” for now) and paste the converted titles into that column as plain text.
You will probably want to do some spot checking, as issues can arise with acronyms, book/film titles, etc. Depending on the original formatting of your Title metadata, it may be helpful to refer to that column as you spot check. Note the following points.
Italicized text in the Title field will appear in the CSV export surrounded by <em> and </em> tags, as shown in the screenshot below. You can insert these tags manually to add italics, as needed.
Once the spot checking is completed, delete the original title column, and rename the “title_revised” column “title”.
Then download the Google Sheet as a CSV file and name the file exactly what the original CSV file was named (e.g., sanfrancisco_thesis.csv).
That’s it! Be sure to save the CSV again, and you You can send the CV file back to David. He will take it from there and give you the opportunity for a “sanity check” before finalizing the changes.
Option #2: Use the PROPER function
...
The Using the PROPER function in Excel is a potentially faster method for converting all caps to title case, but it will capitalize the first letter of all words, including some that you would likely prefer to be lowercase (e.g., 2-3 letter words including articles and prepositions), so more manual clean-up may be needed.
Download the .zip file for your campus. Contact David if you don’t have that URL.
There is a separate CSV file within the .zip file for each data model/work form, of which we currently have four: dataset, educational resource, publication, and thesis. If your campus will be cleaning up Title metadata for more than just ETDs, you will need to complete the following clean up steps for each CSV separately.
For each CSV file, download it and save it locally. Then delete all fields (columns) except for id (column A) and title (column I).
Then open a Google Sheet, click File > Import, click the Upload tab, and select or drag and drop the CSV file into the window. As shown in the screenshot below, be sure to uncheck the “Convert text to numbers, dates, and formulas” option before clicking “Import data.”
Add a new column C (you can name it “title_revised” for now), and in cell C2, type =PROPER(B2) and press enter/return on your keyboard. This will convert the all caps text in B2 to title case.
Then fill the formula down the entire column. Please consult Excel’s documentation for additional guidance with that. 
When prompted to autofill the rest of the column, click the checkmark button to do so.
Then copy the output of that formula and paste it as values in a new column (you can name that one “title_revised2” for now).
Please save your file at this point to avoid losing your work.
As noted above, this formula will capitalize the first letter of all words and lower case the rest, so spot checking will likely be required to identify those words that should be all caps (e.g., acronyms) and identify words that should not be capitalized (e.g., a, an, of, at).
You may want to consider using find and replace to automate this process a bit, working from the title-revised2 column. For example, you could replace all instances of “ Of “ with “ of “ as shown in the screenshot to the rightbelow. Just be sure to include a space before and after the word in order to avoid replacing longer words that simply begin/end with the same letters. You will want to search “By Columns” “This sheet” and check the “Match case” option.
Once the spot checking is completed, delete the original title column and the “title_revised” column. Then rename the “title_revised2” column “title”.
Then download the Google Sheet as a CSV file and name the file exactly what the original CSV file was named (e.g., sanfrancisco_thesis.csv).
That’s it! Be sure to save the CSV again, and you You can send the CV file back to David. He will take it from there and give you the opportunity for a “sanity check” before finalizing the changes.
Field #2: Creator, Advisor, Committee Member (February 2022-March 2022) – DRAFT
Overview
In 2020-2021, the MWG discussed feedback from ScholarWorks project managers regarding the need for more inclusive help text for the Creator field, which advised that names be entered “with the last name first,” followed by a comma and the first name and middle name or initial, if applicable. The help text also included Anglocentric examples, as shown in the screenshot below.
...