User Manual: CSV Import Tool: Locations

Workflow and sample data for using the CSV Import Tool to:

• Create a Storage Location Authority

• Add Location/Movement/Inventory records

• Create relationships between Location/Movement/Inventory records and Objects

CREATING A HIERARCHICAL STORAGE LOCATION AUTHORITY

The Storage Location authority in CollectionSpace is used to manage information about the physical locations where Objects can be stored. To create a new Storage Location hierarchy:

1. Choose a Storage Location at your organization to start with - it’s ok to start small and add more Storage Locations later. For this workflow, we’ll call our Storage Location MAIN STORAGE.

2. From largest to smallest, write out each of the Storage Location sections in your chosen space. It might be something like ROOM > UNIT > SHELF. It’s ok if you have more sections!

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3. Decide what you’d like to call your locations - some organizations create codes that include the hierarchies so they don’t end up with 20 Storage Locations named “Shelf 2.” For example, in the image above, the location codes might be MST, MST:U1, MST:U1:S1, MST:U1:S2, etc.

4. You’ll need to create two import files - one to add the Storage Locations to CSpace, and one to create the hierarchies (e.g. making sure that Unit 1 is the parent of the correct Shelf 1). The templates below have a few lines of sample data based on the examples in this walkthrough; you can delete it and add your own, or if you just want to experiment with the import tool you can add your own initials to the term name column and import as is. Make sure to update the term names in the hierarchy template, too!

Your Storage Location terms do not need to be hierarchical - it’s fine to just import a list of terms and skip the second step. Once these terms have been added, you only need to repeat this step if you’d like to import another large batch of Storage Locations. You can always add new Storage Locations one-by-one via the user interface.

ADD LOCATION, MOVEMENT, AND INVENTORY RECORDS

ADD RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOCATION, MOVEMENT, AND INVENTORY RECORDS AND OBJECTS

Now that you have a Storage Location authority, you can start assigning locations to your Objects! To use the CSV Importer also requires two steps - first creating the Location, Movement, and Inventory records and then creating relationships between the LMIs and the Objects.

This process can also be done through the CollectionSpace UI - see User Manual: Locations: Add a Location to an Object.

The templates below have a few lines of sample data you can use for your Location, Movement, and Inventory import, and your relationships. Be sure to swap in the right Storage Location names based on your previous import, and use Object ID Numbers that exist in your system.