1 Create Once Use Many Times The Clever Use of Metadata in eGovernment and eBusiness Recordkeeping Processes in Networked Environments ARC Linkage Project

2 Outline The Metadata Challenge The Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project and People Interoperability Research Design APAI Research Project Example Transformations Project Time Lines Related Projects and Initiatives Conclusion Feedback

3 Feedback Expert advice on the project itself Identifying stakeholders and constituencies Articulating the business case Possible test bed sites Dissemination and publication strategies

4 The Metadata Challenge: State of Play Research frameworks in place Standards frameworks in place Major implementation issues

5 The Metadata Challenge: Implementation Issues Essential to the development of business, recordkeeping and archival systems of the future is the clever use of metadata, including inheritance from business environments and reuse in current recordkeeping, archival and cultural domains –and vice versa Current practice – metadata silos, with metadata generation and deployment semi-automated at best, resource intensive and application specific Strategies and tools needed so that metadata can be “created once, and used many times”

6 Metadata in Business Systems of the Future Create quality, authoritative metadata once Re-use and re-purpose within organisations, across organisations and across jurisdictions Maximise operational efficiency by reducing the need for separate work areas to recreate metadata

7 Metadata in Recordkeeping Systems of the Future Address challenge of complying with metadata standards that are not supported by implementation strategies Influence software vendor community to further develop the technology to support automated metadata capture and re-use for different purposes Support quality, accountable, auditable records

8 Metadata and the Archives of the Future Develop systems that can operate beyond the level of the individual or corporate archive, and of collective archives as we now know them, to describe parallel recordkeeping universes, encompassing the world views of all parties to the transactions, and providing meaningful access paths to all stakeholders. Build metadata frameworks, strategies and tools to support systems that can: –encompass Chris Hurley’s “parallel provenance” and Jeannette Bastian’s communities of records –negotiate the complex matrices of mutual rights and obligations invoked in Eric Ketelaar’s vision of shared ownership and joint heritage

9 The Stakeholders Organisations Recordkeeping Professionals Recordkeeping Regulators Auditors and Accountability Players Archival Institutions Users of Records and Archives Society

10 Clever Recordkeeping Metadata Project Brings together researchers and practitioners from Monash, UCLA, NAA, SRA NSW and ASA to: –Explore metadata interoperability –Demonstrate the business case for automating metadata capture and reuse in business and recordkeeping systems –Provide models and strategies for archival description as a process of managing, augmenting and re-purposing the rich mines of metadata in our environments that will support the archives of the future

11 Investigators Chief Investigator Professor Sue McKemmish Monash University Partner Investigator Professor Anne Gilliland-Swetland, UCLA Mr Adrian Cunningham, National Archives of Australia

12 Industry Partners and Collaborators National Archives of Australia Mr Duncan Jamieson State Records New South Wales Mr Tony Leviston Australian Society of Archivists, Descriptive Standards Committee Ms Barbara Reed Distributed Systems Technology Centre Mr Andrew Wood

13 Multidisciplinary Research Team Australian Postgraduate Award Industry –Ms Joanne Evans Research Associate –Ms Karuna Bhoday Agile Programmer –Sergio Viademonte Research Coordinator - Carol Jackway

14 Interoperability means enabling information that originates in one context to be used in another in ways that are as highly automated as possible (Rust et al, 2000) Explore how metadata can cross technical, spatial and temporal boundaries, including translations between business, recordkeeping and archiving systems, across levels of aggregation, through time, across contextual boundaries Develop/deploy meta-tools, e.g.metadata registries, mapping tools, standardised data representations, communication protocols (e.g. encoding languages like XML, communication protocols like SOAP) CRKM and Interoperability

15 Layers of Interoperability Model Layer 3 Abstract Attribute Space e.g. Dublin Core, Recordkeeping Metadata Standards Value Space e.g. Ontologies, Classifications, Controlled Vocabularies, Taxonomies Layer 2 Representation e.g. XML, RDF, DAML-OIL, OWL Layer 1 Transport and Exchange e.g. OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting Conceptual Data Model From: Thomas Baker et al., Principles of Metadata Registries, 2002

16 Recordkeeping Metadata Initiatives Layer 3 Abstract Recordkeeping Metadata Standards e.g. NAA RKMS, NSW RKMS, SARKMS, VERS, Metadata Requirements in Functional Specifications for Records Management Systems Archival Descriptive Standards e.g. Australian Series System, RAD, ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF) Layer 2 Representation e.g. EAD, EAC, VERS DTD Layer 1 Transport and Exchange Component based architectures, Web Services technologies Conceptual Models of Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema From: Thomas Baker et al., Principles of Metadata Registries, 2002

17 Example of Metadata Interoperability Records Management System Archival Control System Business System

18 Research Design Conceptual framework –Records Continuum, Metadata conceptual models from the Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema, ISO/TS Metadata for Records Demonstrate the concept –Simulated real world scenario –User centred rapid prototyping using agile methods Implementation model –Test bed implementation as model for best practice –High profile to attract attention Meta-registries and meta-tools

19 NAA Scenario Policy Development – Publishing - Transfer Records Management System (TRIM) Archival Control System (Record Search) Learning Object Gateway Other Portals Desktop Applications NAA Intranet NAA Public Website Metadata Standards – Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema, NAA RKMS, AGLS, CRS, Digital Object Preservation Archival Gateways

20 Build the prototype … Innovative techniques User-centred rapid prototyping involving: ―An agile programmer to extend existing software and metadata deployment functionality in small, user-centred iterations ―Generation of new ideas and reprioritising old ones as the prototype evolves and insights develop ―A multidisciplinary research team and focus groups of experts to develop the scenario, and derive the metadata requirements, and for validating each iteration

21 Then develop a model for best practice… Test-bed implementation: –An intelligent model that demonstrates interoperability – “create once, use many times” – within metadata standards framework –Applies in different domains –High profile to attract attention

22 Meta-registries and Meta-tools Mini meta-registries Mappings between attribute and value spaces Representation of mappings for automated processing – crosswalks Rules for aggregation of data and making contextual metadata explicit XML DTDs and Schemas Metadata interchange and translation tools

23 Examples of Metadata Transformation Currently exploring the transformation of metadata from a recordkeeping environment to a publishing/resource discovery environment (RKMS to AGLS) Element for element transformations by creating an xml record and applying an xslt style sheet based on a manual crosswalk Issues encountered: Impact of different encoding schemes used in different environments Addressing the challenges posed by different levels of aggregation across different environments Different fundamental models underpinning each environment and consequently negating the level of interoperability between standards.

25 Technological Perspective XML (RDF) – Presentation of metadata schemas and record descriptions XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations) – To manipulate and transform XML documents SAX (JAXP) – Simple (java) API for XML processing – Parse, manipulate and transform XML documents

26 Part of RKMS Policy Document Description in XML (1) Document Author Commonwealth CA 8550 National Archives of Australia Government Services Branch, Policy and Standards PO Box 7425 Canberra Mail Centre ACT 2610

27 Part of RKMS Policy Document Description in XML (2) Functional Keyword AAA The DIRKS Manual: A Strategic Approach to Managing Business Information Final Approved Version 1 August 2003 The DIRKS Manual Recordkeeping Standards Policy or Standards Development The DIRKS Manual: A Strategic Approach to Managing Business Information

28 Part of RKMS Policy Document HTML View

29 Part of Transformation of Policy Document RKMS into AGLS <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="

30 Part of AGLS Policy Document HTML View

31 APAI Research Project Investigating the roles archival description can play in support of recordkeeping and other business processes in an integrated systems environment: –Where can this contextual metadata be authoritatively sourced? –What are the requirements for metadata interoperability? How can recordkeeping metadata cross technical, spatial and temporal boundaries in automated ways? –What tools are required to support this metadata re-use? –What impact will this have on archival functions? What impact will this have on archival control and recordkeeping systems?

32 CRKM Metadata Registry Records Management System (TRIM) Archival Control System Learning Object Portal Other Portals Web CMS Archival Gateway Desktop Applications Metadata Registry Metadata Registry - source of authoritative information on metadata schemas including elements, legal values, local extensions, usage guidelines etc. - functionality to transform metadata between metadata sets (e.g. Via crosswalks, mapping to an interoperable core, etc.)

33 Project Time Lines

34 Project Time Lines

35 Related Projects and Initiatives: The Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative Incorporating all Australian federal, state, territory and Archives New Zealand ADRI Framework: Making & managing digital records Keeping digital records (both in agencies and in the archives) Transferring digital records to archives Using digital records

36 CRKM Intersection with ADRI Framework Making and managing digital records: Guidelines and tools for classification and control metadata for records Standards for recordkeeping metadata Keeping digital records: (both in agencies and in the archives) Standards for describing digital records Transferring digital records to archives: Methods for automatic transfer of recordkeeping metadata Standards for transfer between government agencies and from agencies to archival custody Using digital records: Standards for Uniform resource discovery based on metadata sets (eg, AGLS)

37 Other Related Projects InterPARES 2 – Metadata Schema Registry (translation of attributes and transformation of values; exploration of meta-tools for representation and exchange San Diego Supercomputer Center – tools and technologies for metadata representation, translation and ongoing management ISO recordkeeping metadata standard – framework standard for metadata schemas that relate to attributes and values spaces, and possible extension to address interoperability model representation layer issues

38 Conclusion: Project Outcomes Create Once, Use Many Times Demonstrator Strategies and tools to support t ranslation and transformation of metadata between business, recordkeeping & archival systems, and resource discovery portals, across levels of aggregation and contextual boundaries, in and through time Business case for extension of metadata interoperability capabilities Models to support communication with interdisciplinary teams of software and system developers Contribution to ADRI, InterPARES 2 Description Research Team, San Diego Supercomputer Center, and ISO recordkeeping metadata standard initiative Understandings and strategies relating to the clever use of recordkeeping metadata in forming and transforming the archives of the future

39 Feedback Expert advice on the project itself Identifying stakeholders and constituencies Articulating the business case Possible test bed sites Dissemination and publication strategies Project Documentation at

40 Create Once Use Many Times The Clever Use of Metadata in eGovernment and eBusiness Recordkeeping Processes in Networked Environments ARC Linkage Project