1. A New International Standard for Describing Functions: ICA-ISDF
Padre Baroan - Claire Sibille
ICA Committee on Best Practices and Standards

2. Presentation summary Any definition
Why an international standard for describing functions of records creators?
- Purpose
Process of development of ISDF
Structure and elements
Advantage
Examples
Future developments

3. Any definitions
“Function. Any high level purpose, responsibility or task assigned to the accountability agenda of a corporate body by legislation, policy or mandate. Functions can be subdivided for instance into subfunctions, business processes, activities, tasks, transactions, etc.” (ICA-ISDF)

4. Any definitions
“Function is the first level of a business classification scheme. Functions represent the major responsibilities that are managed by the organisation to fulfil its goals” (Standards Australia, AS 4390, Part 4, Clause 7.2.)
The Australian definition is based on a concept, that is the basis for records management in this country: schemes of functional classification.

5. Why an international standard for describing functions of records creators?
Until now ISAD(G) serves to describe archival materials and ISAAR(CPF) serves to describe records creators
Users have information on archival materials and on their records creators, but they don’t have access to all the necessary contextual information

6. Sometimes, the relationships of records with the functions that generated them are more important than the relationships of the records with the organisations that created them
Functions are used by records managers to analyse and classify records, rather than an organisational structure
During its existence, any corporate body as a records creator may lose one of its responsibilities because this responsibility no longer needs to be carried out. As well new responsibilities may be assigned to an organisation, corresponding to new needs, in particular for implementing new legislation. Functions are often transferred from one corporate body to another. Transfers can also be internal, i.e. the function is transferred from one organism to another. These various forms of changes in responsibilities generally occur when the services are re-organised and result in all kinds of changes of structure, creation or removal of offices or of divisions within an organism, creation of new organisms attached or subordinated to still existing organisms, etc.
Consequently, because the fonds is composed of all the documents resulting from the activities of a given organism, the fonds of an organism which will have undergone successively additions, removals or transfers of competencies will contain documents reflecting all these variations, thus making difficult the reconstitution, by the researchers, of the administrative continuity or of a quite simple chronological and logical series of business processes.
Another way could be the functional approach of records managers; for records managers, who use functions to analyse and classify records, rather than an administrative and organisational structure.

7. Purpose of ICA-ISDF
Provides a framework for the standardization and exchange of archival descriptions that identify and describe functions to enable:

8. Structured documentation of relationships between functions, between functions and the records to which they gave rise, and between functions and the corporate bodies that fulfill them
Users to understand the context of records creation
Linking of and access to all the records created or used in connection with a single function

9. Process of development ICA/CBPS Working group
A working group established during the meeting of the provisional Section of Professional Standards and Best Practices at Bern, Switzerland, June, 2005:
Representatives from Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Cote d’Ivoire

10. Development of a first draft
The current models of functional description have been identified, collected and assessed to provide the basis of best practice in a first draft of the new international standard
This draft has been completed, discussed and extended during the first meeting of the WG (Paris, 2006, May)

11. Call for comments
Then, the draft circulated to the archival community for comments (2007, January-March): more than 30 pages of comments
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, ISO/TC46, Latvia, Mexico, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, United States

12. Revision of the draft
The comments were taken into account during the second meeting of the WG (Dresden, Germany, 2007, May):
terminology and functional classification
changing names of elements, removing and adding elements
1 unique chapter about relationships between functions, records and their creators

13. Structure and elements Identification Area
5.1.1 Type
5.1.2 Authorised form(s) of name
5.1.3 Parallel form(s) of name
5.1.4 Other form(s) of name
5.1.5 Classification

14. Context Area 5.2.1 Dates 5.2.2 Description 5.2.3 History
Legislation

15. Relationships Area
5.3.1 Authorised form of name/Identifier of the related function
5.3.2 Type
5.3.3 Category of relationship
5.3.4 Description of relationship
5.3.5 Dates of relationship

16. Control Area 5.4.1 Function description identifier
5.4.2 Institution identifiers
5.4.3 Rules and/or conventions used
5.4.4 Status
5.4.5 Level of detail
5.4.6 Dates of creation, revision or deletion
5.4.7 Language(s) and script(s)
5.4.8 Sources
5.4.9 Maintenance notes

17. Chapter 6
Relating functions to corporate bodies, archival materials and other resources
6.1 Identifier and/or authorised name/title
6.2 Nature of relationship
6.3 Date of relationship

18. The knowledge of functions offers many advantages:
It serves as a basis for the appraisal of records
It serves as a basis for the arrangement and description of records
It serves as a tool for control of access
It serves the users of archives as a tool for retrieval and historical analysis

19. Identification Area

20. Context Area

21. Relationships Area

22. Control Area

23. Control Area

24. Relating functions to corporate bodies, archival materials and other resources

25. Relating functions to corporate bodies, archival materials and other resources

26. Relating functions to corporate bodies, archival materials and other resources

27. DIRKS Methodology (National Archives of Australia)
The National Archives of Australia have developed guidelines for Designing and Implementing RecordKeeping Systems (DIRKS)
It gives a methodology to analyse functions
Australian Governments ’ Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT)

28. Dans l’étape B, on doit analyser les sources documentaires et les interviews (recueillis dans la phase A) pour identifier :
- les objectifs d’un organisme et les stratégies pour atteindre ces objectifs
- les fonctions remplies par l’organisme pour soutenir ces objectifs et stratégies
- les activités qui contribuent à remplir ces fonctions, et
- les groupes de transactions ou procédures récurrentes composant chacune de ces activités.

29. Le thésaurus AGIFT comprend des notes de contenu pour chacune des fonctions. Les Archives nationales d’Australie ont également utilisé AGIFT comme base d’un projet de macro évaluation où différents indicateurs et sources servent à déterminer la signification des fonctions environnementales pour le gouvernement australien et pour la population sur les 30 dernières années.

30. GASHE: Standard for describing activities
Gateway of Archives of Scottish Higher Education
Descriptions of records, of their creators and of activities fulfilled by records creators
The descriptive elements for activities are grouped within four information areas:
Identity Area
Context Area
Area of related material
Notes Area

31. A partir de la liste des fonctions majeures exercées par les établissements d ’enseignement supérieur, il est possible de voir les activités dérivant de cette fonction. Si on choisit par exemple la fonction de gestion des étudiants, on peut voir les activités qui dérivent de cette fonction, et en cliquant sur Recrutement des étudiants, on accède à des descriptions d’activités liées à des organismes. Par exemple, nous pouvons voir l’activité de recrutement des étudiants exercée par l'Atkinson College aux XVIII-XIXe siècles, puis par l'Université de Glasgow à partir de Il peut y avoir des changements dans l ’histoire d’une fonction liée à un organisme déterminé.

33. Rules for the description of functions of Swiss Federal Archives
The description tool is structured in two different levels
A system of classification according to the classification of Swiss Federal Law (qSR)

34. Rules for the description of functions of Swiss Federal Archives
Descriptive elements are grouped into 5 areas:
Identity Area
Description Area
Area of relationships with other functions
Control Area
Area of relationships of functions with other entities

35. Future developments
Development of a single reference model to reconcile and harmonise ISAAR, ISAD, ISDF and ISDIAH and in respect to developments in EAD and EAC
See Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), CIDOC CRM, ISO 2146 (Registry Services for Libraries and Related Organisations)

36. Entities / Relationships Model
Functions
Are documented in
Fulfill
Are created,
managed by
Agents (CPF)
Records