Deleting Records
Describes the process of deleting records in the Metadata Management System (MMS)
Table of contents
Overview
Deleted records cannot be restored within MMS, so take caution to ensure all criteria have been met before proceeding with any deletion.
- In general, records should only be deleted in one of the following circumstances:
- As part of a remediation workflow, e.g. Restructuring Records or Reimporting Metadata
- If records were accidentally created
- Item, container, and collection records should only be deleted if there are no associated capture records or assets
- For items, confirm that the text
No captures yet created for this item.
is present on the Capture inventory tab - For containers or collections, confirm that the text
Total items in this Container 0
orTotal items in this Collection 0
is present on the Lightbox view tab - If capture records exist but display a broken image icon appears instead of thumbnails, see Capture Records in MMS with Broken Image Icons
- For items, confirm that the text
- Before deleting a record, confirm it is no longer needed for reference
- Ensure all necessary metadata elements from the record have been replicated elsewhere if needed
- Ensure the rights profile from the record has been replicated elsewhere by a Digitization Coordinator (DC) if needed
- If a rights profile needs to be moved, follow the rights workflow and include a link to the legacy record
Steps
Deleting Collections
- Confirm the collection record meets the criteria for deletion
- Navigate to the Overview tab of the collection record
- At the bottom of the table containing the overview of the collection, click Delete this collection
- On the Delete collection page:
- If the collection has no child containers or items, click Delete collection
- If the collection contains child containers or items that you have verified are no longer needed, click Delete collection and all its contents
Deleting Containers
- Confirm the collection record meets the criteria for deletion
- Navigate to the Overview tab of the container record
- At the bottom of the table containing the overview of the container, click Delete this container
- On the Delete container page:
- If the container has no child containers or items, click Delete container
- If the container contains child items that you have verified are no longer needed, click Delete container and all children or Delete container and reassign children
Deleting Items
- Confirm the collection record meets the criteria for deletion
- Navigate to the Overview tab of the item record
- At the bottom of the table containing the overview of the item, click Delete this item
Deleting Captures
- Confirm the capture record meets the criteria for deletion
- Captures with identifiers in the Capture IDs field should never be deleted, see Capture Records in MMS with Broken Image Icons
- Navigate to the Capture inventory tab of the item record
- To delete a single capture:
- In the Delete column of the capture’s row, click X
- To delete multiple captures:
- Locate the captures you would like to delete
- In the ☐ (checkbox) column of the captures’ rows, select all the captures you would like to delete
- Click checkbox at the top of the column to select all captures
- Open the Actions on checked captures: dropdown menu above the captures
- Select Delete and click Go
- Review the pop-up and click Sounds good, make it so
See Also
- MMS Database › Navigation 🔒 for details on accessing the MODS XML of deleted item, container, and collection records