The Research Problem

The problem addressed by this project relates to the challenge of automating metadata creation and sharing 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. In both the Commonwealth of Australia and NSW public sectors, concerns about the quality of recordkeeping and lack of compliance with standards led to investigations by the Auditor General. Although government agencies are required to comply with recordkeeping metadata standards, and government web sites must use Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) metadata, audit findings confirm that in practice there are major problems with implementation of the standards (Australian National Audit Office, 2002).

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. Archives organizations duplicate much of this work when records of long-term value are transferred to their control. Archival description, which assures the integrity and usability of historical records, is currently hugely resource intensive as it seeks to retrospectively describe and index archival collections.

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.

Towards a Solution

 

About     Research     Publications     Consulting     Links     Sitemap

Authorised by Head, School of Information Management and Systems. Caution.
Maintained by Records Continuum Research Group.

Last updated 12 October 2003.