Australian Society of Archivists Conference Perth pm 9 August 2008 Report on outcomes from the Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project Joanne Evans and Sue McKemmish

2 Challenges for electronic recordkeeping Manual descriptive processes unsustainable –cannot keep up with exponential increases in volumes of records created in the course of business and social activities –cannot be applied at lower levels of granularity inherent to digital medium –cannot keep up with transformations in way people work and communicate brought about by digital and network technologies

3 Metadata systems approach Bearman, Archivaria, 1993 –develop tools and methods ‘to acquire descriptions of individual records, files and record-keeping systems directly from the self-documenting features of electronic records systems.’ Hedstrom, Archivaria, 1993 –‘In the electronic era, the descriptive paradigm will shift from the practice of augmenting scarce descriptive information to one of selecting from an abundance of metadata, which could form a complete audit trail of all actions taken to create, update and modify a record, and all of its uses. Automated systems have the capacity to capture and record far more descriptive information than was technically possible or economically feasible with manual systems.’

years on … Electronic systems not as reliably or well documented as would like. Hard-wiring applications delivers some automated recordkeeping metadata capture and re-use capabilities, but is expensive and brittle, and not enough to move beyond a minimal metadata approach.

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6 Services model Consumer Registry Finds service Service Descriptions Points to description Service Describes service Locate service Exchange messages Source: Based on diagram from

7 Service oriented architectures (SOA) Recordkeeping Services

8 Recordkeeping in SOA Metadata Broker

9 Metadata Broker as cluster of web services Translation Service Web Service Layer Registry Service Web Service Layer AGEMS Request to translate AGEMS to RKMSCA AGEMS – RKMSCA Crosswalk Service Web Service Layer Metadata Broker Client Request the AGEMS – RKMSCA crosswalk RKMSCA

10 Are we ready for service orientation? Design for recordkeeping Design for recordkeeping metadata Design for interoperability

11 To participate in SOA … Overcome paper thinking and dominance of paper paradigm

12 To participate in SOA … Move beyond static resource discovery metadata models

13 To participate in SOA … Standards for machine rather than human processability Abstract Representation Conceptual Model Metadata/Data Standard Metadata/Data Standard Metadata/Data Standard Version 1 Encoding 1 Version 2Version n Encoding 2Encoding n Version 1Version 2Version n Registry Objects Transport and Exchange

14 Standards and interoperability Standards compliance does not guarantee interoperability –Recordkeeping metadata standards are just a part of an infrastructure for interoperability  Balance between standardisation activities for best current practice versus standardisation activities to deliver better next generation practices

15 Desktop Applications Business Systems Web Management System Implementing recordkeeping metadata Records Management Application Archival Management Application Subject Portals Community Archives Archival Gateways Schema Crosswalk Schema Records Management Application Archival Management Application Subject Portals Community Archives Web Management Systems Archival Gateways and Desktop Applications Metadata Broker Business Information Systems Metadata Broker

16 Innovate to service oriented future Recordkeeping Services

17 For more information see the Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project Website research/groups/rcrg/crkmhttp:// research/groups/rcrg/crkm