User Manual: Term List Management

A term list is a limited set of terms arranged as a simple alphabetical list or in some other logically evident way. Lists are used to describe aspects of content objects or entities that have a limited number of possibilities. Examples include geography (e.g., country, state, city), language (e.g., English, French, Swedish), or format (e.g., text, image, sound). Term list management allows the user to add terms to and remove terms from a list, set the default value, and edit the status of terms within a list.

  • To view or edit an existing term list, navigate to Administration > Term Lists
  • NB: You must have delete permission to Term lists in order to add terms to or delete terms from a list. It is not possible to add new term lists or delete current term lists from the Administration tab. However, adding and deleting term lists are options during your configuration of CollectionSpace. Please see the installation documentation for more information.



  • Select the term list from the list on the left side of the screen
  • After selection, you may change the term list name, source, and description
  • To add a new term to a list, press the + sign at the bottom left of the Terms list, and type the desired term in the empty field that appears
  • After changing a term list name, Save the list. Your changes will be reflected in the list of term lists on the left side of the screen and any dropdowns where the list contents appear



  • To change the status of a term from Active to Inactive or the reverse, select the desired option from the Status dropdown menu for that particular term
  • Inactive terms will continue to display in the term list and any fields in which they have been used, but they will no longer be selectable by users
  • Users must clear their caches for a term's active or inactive status to be properly updated



  • To delete a term from a term list, click the - at the end of its row
  • If the term is currently in use anywhere in CollectionSpace, an error message will appear and it will not be possible to delete the term



  • Before editing a term list, view the Used by section, which shows all the locations where a specific list is in use



To edit the order of a term list:

  • Click on the column header to sort alphabetically.
  • Click the numbered "move to top" buttons to move any value to the top of the list
  • When the move-to-top button is focused, you can use shift + up and down arrows to move an item one position up or down.