About the Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project

The Context

Metadata - structured context-rich information about business processes, agents, systems and information resources - is a vital tool in managing business transactions and related information objects in complex intranet/internet environments to support eBusiness and eGovernment.

In recent years, a suite of standards, best practice models and guidelines has been developed to address the challenge of managing electronic records and other information objects. The main objectives have been to support reliable, trustworthy and accountable business processes, and to provide better access to information resources online, particularly in the areas of eGovernment and eBusiness. Metadata guidelines or standards are now in place in most jurisdictions in Australia.

Implementation of metadata standards is proving to be problematic. The challenge is to automate metadata creation and enable sharing of business critical metadata between the business systems and applications that control workflow; manage knowledge; and create, manage and retrieve documents, records and the content of web sites. Metadata generation and deployment in such systems are currently resource intensive and application specific. Metadata creation is not usually fully automated. Metadata created in one application of potential relevance to other applications is not shared between applications. Auditor-General inquiries in various Australian jurisdictions confirm that in practice there are major problems with implementation of the standards. [1]

Metadata standards development envisaged implementation in integrated systems environments and the deployment of metatools that would enable the clever use of metadata. In practice, many of the types of contextual information (metadata) created and used by recordkeeping systems are also created and used in a variety of other business application environments, such as desktop document authoring applications, web content management systems, human resource management systems, work flow systems and archival control systems. But recordkeeping systems as currently implemented do not draw on these systems as sources of metadata; rather they re-create it – often in manual and resource intensive ways. A parallel situation exists in relation to resource discovery metadata. For example AGLS metadata is most often created retrospectively at the time a document is made available on a web site, rather than being automatically supplied by the software in which the document was originally created, although this application would have also created almost identical metadata in order to manage and retrieve the document.

Although data modeling, mark up language and syntax initiatives are addressing the data representation requirements for metadata translation and exchange, this functionality has not as yet been utilized in the systems that support eGovernment and eBusiness processes and recordkeeping. Moreover there has been little progress in relation to developing strategies and metatools for the translation of metadata values between schemas in these environments.

Research Proposition

The Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project aimed to develop a prototype to demonstrate how to overcome major barriers to the implementation of recordkeeping and resource discovery metadata standards, particularly in eGovernment. It was intended to provide an implementation model for the clever use of metadata in quality recordkeeping systems that capture and manage information that can support the reliability, authenticity, accessibility and usability of evidence of government decisions and activities for as long as that evidence is required. The development of the prototype and the implementation model would involve the prototyping and testing of innovative metatools that will enable the translation of metadata between different schemas, including a mini metadata registry.

Quality assurance mechanisms will also be developed during the prototyping as a critical feature of the prototype and implementation model will be the demonstration of the business utility of metadata, as well as the cost effectiveness and feasibility of having integrated systems and applications that permit metadata to be created and captured once and reused for multiple business critical purposes.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for the project is provided by records continuum theory and the records continuum model, which support the development of complex, integrated systems and processes to manage records and archives in and through time, and across space.

The research outcomes of the previous research project, Archival Metadata Standards for Managing and Accessing Information Resources in Networked Environments over time for Government, Social and Cultural Purposes, Chief Investigators Sue McKemmish, Anne Pederson, Australian Research Council SPIRT Grant (commonly referenced as the SPIRT project) were taken as a starting point for this project. For more information see the Recordkeeping Metadata Project website.

Anticipated Outcomes and Benefits

The outcomes and benefits of the Project at the time of the research proposal were that the Project would:-

  • deliver a proof of concept prototype supported by metatools, capable of demonstrating the business utility of metadata and the cost effectiveness and feasibility of having integrated systems and applications that permit metadata to be created and captured once and reused for multiple business critical purposes (addressed by project outcome areas 3, 4, 5 and 6)
  • provide a model for new software and systems solutions to assist organisations to comply with standards in cost-effective ways that maximise corporate return on investment (addressed by project outcome areas 5 and 6)
  • provide prototypes of new metatools and demonstrate how a metadata registry can enable metadata translation between schemas (addressed by project outcome areas 2, 4, 5 and 6)
  • enable Australian business system developers operating in the resource discovery, document management and records management industry sector to better position themselves in the emerging international market in this field (addressed by project outcome areas 5 and 6)
  • support compliance with recordkeeping and resource discovery standards designed to ensure quality records and archives, accessibility of government information, and the accountability of government (addressed by project outcome areas 1, 2 and 3)

Research Methodology

The research methodology was designed within an action-research framework where a close alignment between the practical development of tools and active reflection on each stage of their development iteratively informs both the further development of the tools and also identifies challenges and issues to be addressed in an ongoing fashion.

The research involved the initial development of a proof-of-concept prototype to demonstrate that metadata re-use is possible and illustrate the business utility of recordkeeping metadata. From that initial proof of concept, the project intended to develop a more robust demonstrator available for wider dissemination.

More details of the first and second iteration of the demonstrator are available on the Research Method and Findings page.

References

  1. Australian National Audit Office, Recordkeeping (Audit Report No. 45, 2001-2002), 1 May 2002, and Recordkeeping in Large Commonwealth Agencies (Audit Report No. 7, 2003-2004), 24 September 2003. [Return to text]