Changing the
collection reference

Changing the collection reference/persistent ID

The collection reference (eg GB133-LSP) is used to form the unique identifier for the record, and enable the creation of URLs (eg http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb133-lsp).

Once you’ve created your description, it’s not possible to use the EAD Editor to change the reference, which has now become the unique identifier for the collection.

However, you can add a new reference within the EAD Editor by using the 'plus' symbol next to the reference box to create a new reference. Your new reference becomes the displayed reference for users, whilst the old reference continues to be used for the URL (web address).

If you wish to change any references (rather than add new references) within your description before you send it to the Archives Hub, you will need to edit it outside of the Editor.

IMPORTANT: If you change the reference in this way after the description is live on the Hub, then the URI (web address) of the description will change. This means that bookmarks and links to the description will no longer work.

Please note: If you are not familiar with EAD, editing the raw XML is not recommended. Please email us if you are not sure about doing this. We may be able to make the changes for you, and we can also apply global changes to identifiers.

If don’t have a local copy of the EAD, see here for how to get a copy.

Open the EAD file in an editing program. You can use XML editing software, or a text editing program such as notepad or wordpad (we don’t recommend editing XML in Microsoft Word)
Look near the top of your description, and locate the <unitid> statement:

This will have at least three 'attributes': countrycode, repositorycode, and identifier., e.g.

The countrycode will always be GB, and the repositorycode is your Archon number (a unique reference for your repository provided by The National Archives). The identifier is your collection reference, and that is what you want to change. (If you want to change the repository details, see here.)

You will need to change the identifier attribute value and the actual content within the tag. For instance, if we wanted to change the identifier of this collection from AB to ABMS:

Save your changes.

If the collection is a top-level description only (no components), you can now upload the file to the EAD Editor, and submit it to the Hub. Please ensure that you add a note to say which description this is replacing, so we can remove the superseded description.

Altering the reference for components

It is not possible to edit the reference code for components in the EAD Editor once they have been created, as they have the same function as the collection reference - they become persistent identifiers.

However, you can alter them in the EAD, outside of the Editor, and then uploading the file to the Editor if you wish.

Please note: If you are not familiar with EAD, editing the raw XML is not recommended. Please email us if you are not sure about doing this. We may be able to make the changes for you, and we can also apply global changes to identifiers.

You may wish to use a ‘find and replace’ function of your editing program to change the reference, such as where the main reference was 'MS' and you want to change all instances of it to 'MXS'

e.g. from GB202-MS/1/1

to GB202-MXS/1/1

Lower-level component references will look something like this: <unitid>GB202-MS/1/1</unitid>. To avoid accidentally altering content that you don’t want to change (such as text that refers to the collection by its reference), we suggest that you include the <unitid> tag in your find/replace statement.

XML with find/replace dialogue box

Replacing ‘<unitid>THM-375/’ with ‘<unitid>THM-GS/’ will change all lower-level references.

You can now save the description, and upload to the EAD Editor as normal.

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Changing thecollection reference