www.monash.edu.au

Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project

Automating Recordkeeping Metadata Capture and Re-use: Translations from Theory to PracticeJoanne Evans, Karuna Bhoday, Sue McKemmish and Sergio Viademonte

Association of Canadian Archivists Conference 2005June 8-11, Saskatoon, Canada

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Recasting Paper Minds

• ‘recast our ‘paper minds’ to deal with electronic realities’

• ‘if improved ways and means are applied to the wrong ends, to the old archival paradigms ... then these ways and means will not solve the problems that we face.’

Terry Cook, 'Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-Custodial and Post-Modern Era', Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 22, no. 2, November 1994, pp. 300-329.

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Recordkeeping Metadata Standards

Records Continuum Theoretical FrameworkRecords Continuum Theoretical Framework

SPIRTRecordkeeping

MetadataProject

OutcomesAustralian Recordkeeping

Metadata Schema

Conceptual Models of Recordkeeping

StandardsRecordkeeping Metadata

Standard for Commonwealth Agencies

New South Wales Recordkeeping Metadata

Standard

State Records of South Australia Recordkeeping

Metadata Standard

Recordkeeping metadata:-

‘structured or semi-structured information that enables the creation, management and use of records in and through time, and within and across the domains in which they are created and used. Recordkeeping metadata is used to identify, authenticate, and contextualise records, as well as the people, processes and systems involved in their creation, management and use.’

David Wallace, ‘Archiving Metadata Forum: Report from the Recordkeeping Metadata Working Meeting, June 2000’, Archival Science, vol. 1, no. 3, 2001, pp. 253-269.

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Recordkeeping BusinessTransaction

Recordkeeping Business Activity

Recordkeeping Business Function

Business Transaction

Business Activity

Business Function

Ambient Function

BUSINESS

Relation

MANDATES

Figure 4: Coverage of Recordkeeping Metadata

Govern

EstablishCompetencies Account For

Rel

atio

n

Recordkeeping Ambient Function

BUSINESSRECORDKEEPING

Relation

Person/Actor

Organisational Unit/Work Group

Organisation/Corporate Body

Social Institution

AGENTS/PEOPLE

Relation

Record Object

Record Aggregation

Corporate Archive/ RK System

Collective Archives

RECORDS

Relation

Relation

Rel

atio

n Relation

Govern

Relation

Rel

atio

n

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Transforming Paper Practices

• Recast our paper minds but yet to transform our paper practices and systems? Need for research to investigate how

theoretical understandings are translated into practice

Conceptualise new methods, tools and infrastructure to support recordkeeping in electronic environments

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Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project

Chief Investigator• Professor Sue McKemmish, Monash

University

Partner Investigators • Professor Anne Gilliland-Swetland, UCLA• Mr Adrian Cunningham, National Archives

of Australia

Industry Partners and Collaborators• National Archives of Australia• State Records Authority of New South

Wales• Australia Society of Archivists, Committee

on Descriptive Standards

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Create once use many times

How to enable metadata interoperability?

Practical Perspectives

Overcome barriers to implementation of

recordkeeping and resource discovery standards

Demonstrate the business case for recordkeeping

metadata

Research Perspectives

Explore role of recordkeeping metadata in support of

business and recordkeeping processes

Impact on recordkeeping and archiving functions

Requirements for meta-tools for recordkeeping metadata management

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System Development Research Method

• Demonstrate the concept of automated metadata capture and re-use through iterative prototyping:-

– Small scale startup leading to more sophisticated development

– Simulated real world scenario - generalise to other environments

– Test aspects of the concept and use to champion the concept

Step 1 Concept Building

Step 2 System Building

Step 3 System Evaluation

Burstein 2002 (after Nunamaker, Chen & Purdin 1990-91)

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First iteration

• Scope:-– Establish a scenario of recordkeeping metadata capture

and re-use, and– Instantiate this scenario to show metadata re-use using

existing technologies and instruments for metadata translation

• Simple solution:-– Defined set of metadata re-use scenarios– Translations as crosswalks instantiated as XSLT files

• Expectations:-– Identify barriers to metadata interoperability– Test existing instruments and technologies– Make the case for meta-tools

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eGovernment Policy Development – Recordkeeping – Publishing – Archiving Scenario

Records Management Application

Archival Management Application

Learning Object Portal

Other Portals

Desktop Applications

Intranet

Public Website

Metadata Standards – Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema, RKMSCA, AGLS, CRS, Digital Object Preservation

Archival Gateways

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Metadata Re-use Scenarios

Records Management Application

Archival Management Application

Learning Object Portal

Other Portals

Web Management

Systems Archival Gateway

Email and Desktop

Applications

Metadata Broker

Business Information

Systems

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Metadata Re-use Scenario - Publishing

• Re-use of recordkeeping metadata as resource discovery metadata

RKMS

Metadata

RKMS – Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies

AGLS

Metadata

AGLS – Australian Government Locator Service

XSLT

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Metadata Re-use Scenario - Archiving

• Re-use of metadata from business recordkeeping system as archival description

CRSItem

Metadata

CRS – Commonwealth Record Series

CRS Series

Metadata

RKMS – Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies

RKMS

Metadata

XSLT & Java Objects

XSLT

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Findings and Challenges

1. Recordkeeping metadata re-use is possible

… but feasibility and sustainability are key issues

Further conceptualisation of the functionality of the metadata broker using a prototyping approach

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CRKM Metadata Broker

Metadata registry

Authoritative information on metadata schemas, elements and translations in

human readable and machine processable forms

Repository

Machine processable representations of metadata schemas, elements and

translations

Temporary store of metadata instances undergoing translation

Source metadata Target metadata

Translation services

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Findings and Challenges

2. Systems integration is constrained by interoperability limitations of current business, records and archival management applications

Conceive of metadata broker as a service within an integrated systems environment based on a service oriented architecture (SOA)

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Findings and Challenges

3. Existing metadata standards are not as interoperable as developers assumed

RKMS Date•Created

•Transacted•Registered

AGLS Date•Created•Modified

•Valid•Issued

RKMS Identifier

AGLS Identifier

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Findings and Challenges

4. Recordkeeping metadata re-use is dynamic and complex Demonstrate metadata interoperability taking into

account element semantics, their value domains and encoding schemes

Investigate recordkeeping metadata standards based on dynamic rather than static metadata models with multiple entities

Semi-automation – where full automation is not possible, how can existing metadata be re-purposed to facilitate metadata attribution?

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Findings and Challenges

5. Recordkeeping metadata re-use constrained by workflow configured around retrospective metadata creation

Re-engineering and re-positioning of recordkeeping and archiving processes in line with a continuum view

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Metadata Re-use Scenarios

Records Management Application

Archival Management Application

Learning Object Portal

Other Portals

Web Management

Systems Archival Gateway

Email and Desktop

Applications

Metadata Broker

Business Information

Systems

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Findings and Challenges

6. Role of action research in developing theory and practice Greater and growing understandings of the

complexity of recordkeeping metadata re-use Feedback to metadata standards developers

of requirements:-- to support implementation- to support interoperability

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Conclusion

• Strive for tandem development of theory and practice

• Role of action research in deepening our theoretical understandings and developing practice to meet the challenges of new technologies