HOW SYSTEMS SUPPORT STANDARDS UKAD FORUM 27 TH MARCH 2014 MALCOLM HOWITT – AXIELL ALM AXIELL

HOW SYSTEMS SUPPORT STANDARDS  Challenge of multiple standards  How standards help – and complicate – software development  Benefits for archivists and end users

OUR EXPERIENCE  Few core standards when we started  Applying manual processes into databases  Mostly traditional material  Early funding for catalogue projects  Focus moved to public access  Commercial suppliers became identified with specific sectors  Based around standard workflows as well as data standards

CURRENT SITUATION  Wider range of material  Traditional, digitised, born digital  List of standards to support is enormous  Recently been asked about  MARC, EAD, EAC, XML, OAI, ISAAR, ISDF, SRU-CQL, SPECTRUM, ICOM, CDWA, LIDO, XSLT, DC, METS, DIDL, OWL, RDF, PREMIS, ICOM AFRIDOC, CCO, VRA, CHIN, OBJECT ID  Develop a system focussed around specific standards  Scope for integration and sharing

PRACTICAL APPLICATION  Systems built around standard workflows and data standards  Customers want to define own workflows and use own local interpretation of standards  Flexible systems but do they become  too complicated  and complex  and costly

OPENING THINGS UP  Balance the gap between internal collections management and external collections exposure  Using standards as a data exchange mechanism  supporting local, national and international services

TRIANGLE  Three of us in this relationship  supplier, our customer, your customer (end user)  Multi-directional relationship  What each of us does influences the work of the others

TRIANGLE  Supplier brings:  support for workflows, standards, data exchange mechanisms  listening ear, responsive to requirements  proactive approach to development  second guessing?  Customer:  uses and interprets what the system offers  applies this to public representation of content (both owned and related)  in an exchangeable and discoverable way  End user:  absorbs, uses, engages with others, has new expectations

SO…..  Standards:  Help us define and create tools to allow our customers to work effectively and efficiently  Provide a structure within which they can work  Facilitate local interpretation  and public exposure  Give us a way to manage end user expectation  Complete the triangle

THANK YOU 27/08/201310