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Making metadata matter

Australian Society of Archivists Victorian Branch Seminar Accessibility over time – the retention, use and re-use of information in the digital age Thursday 21 August 2008, 2 - 4.30pm. Making metadata matter. Outcomes from the Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project.

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Making metadata matter

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  1. Australian Society of Archivists Victorian Branch Seminar Accessibility over time – the retention, use and re-use of information in the digital ageThursday 21 August 2008, 2 - 4.30pm Making metadata matter Outcomes from the Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project Joanne Evans and the CRKM Research team

  2. Outline • Metadata • Recordkeeping metadata • Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project • Outcomes • Service oriented architectures and implications for recordkeeping • Developing and implementing recordkeeping metadata standards

  3. Maturing understanding of metadata • From ‘data about data’ to:- Data are any and all complex data entities from observations, experiments, simulations, models, and higher order assemblies, along with the associated documentation needed to describe and interpret the data. Metadata are a subset of data, and are data about data. Metadata summarize data content, context, structure, interrelationships, and provenance (information on history and origins). They add relevance and purpose to data, and enable the identification of similar data in different data collections. National Science Foundation, Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery, March 2007 http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/CI_Vision_March07.pdf

  4. Defining metadata • Metadata • structured data/information that describes an object in order to facilitate its understanding, management and use. • Characteristics • Metadata is recursive • Metadata may be intrinsic • Metadata may be extrinsic • Metadata is dynamic • Metadata is complex • Metadata may apply at various layers of granularity, aggregation and abstraction • Purpose of metadata determines the attributes of the object that are described • Metadata may be different and similar across metadata communities

  5. Defining metadata (continued) • Metadata communities • Resource Discovery, Recordkeeping, Geospatial, Digital Rights, Preservation, Document Management, Data management, etc. • Metadata creation processes • Describing, Titling, Identifying, Annotating, Labelling, Cataloguing, Classifying, Categorising, Relating, Audit trailing, Tagging, etc. • Creation and management challenges • Expense • Resource intensive • Quality assurance

  6. Recordkeeping Metadata • Standardised information that identifies, authenticates, describes, manages and makes accessible, through time and space, documents created in the context of social and business activity. • Traditionally some of this metadata has been captured in records systems and some in archival control systems and finding aids. And some of it has been present in the physical form, ordering, juxtaposition and location of records. Increasingly recordkeeping metadata is also captured in workflow, document management and knowledge management systems, and it is essential to make what was before evident in the physicality of the record explicit in metadata. Source: Records Continuum Research Group, SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Project Glossary, http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/research/spirt/glossary.html

  7. Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project ARC Linkage Project mid 2003-2006 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 http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/rcrg/crkm

  8. 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

  9. 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.’

  10. Service Descriptions Registry Points to description Locate service Describes service Finds service Consumer Service Services model Exchange messages Source: Based on diagram from http://www.softstar-inc.com/

  11. Recordkeeping Services Service oriented architectures (SOA)

  12. Metadata Broker Recordkeeping in SOA

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

  14. Are we ready for service orientation? Design for recordkeeping Design for recordkeeping metadata Design for interoperability

  15. To participate in SOA … • Overcome paper thinking and dominance of paper paradigm

  16. To participate in SOA … • Move beyond static resource discovery metadata models

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

  18. 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

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

  20. Recordkeeping Services Innovate to service oriented future

  21. For more information see the Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project Website • http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/rcrg/crkm joanne.evans@infotech.monash.edu.au

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