General Introduction (PDF Version (479 Kb) )

The Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema (RKMS) is the main deliverable from the 1998-99 SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Research Project. The RKMS provides:

• · a standardised set of structured recordkeeping metadata elements;
• · a framework for developing and specifying recordkeeping metadata standards;
• · a framework for reading or mapping metadata sets in ways which can enable their semantic interoperability by establishing equivalences and correspondences that can provide the basis for semi-automated translation between metadata schemas.

Description of Records in their Business Context
Recordkeeping metadata is defined broadly to include all standardised information that identifies, authenticates, describes, manages and makes accessible documents created in the context of social and organisational activity. The RKMS provides a standardised set of recordkeeping metadata that enables the identification and description of records that document social and organisational activity, as well as significant features of the business contexts in which records are created, managed and used. These features include:

• the people or agents involved in creating, controlling, managing and using records
• the functions, activities and transactions in which the people or agents are engaged
• recordkeeping functions, activities and transactions.

The RKMS also includes metadata elements that support the management of recordkeeping functions, activities and transactions, e.g. relating to appraisal, control, preservation, retrieval, access and use of records. There is also provision for tracking and documenting recordkeeping processes.

Relationship with Emerging Australian and International Metadata Standards
The Recordkeeping Metadata Schema has been developed using conventions and protocols adopted by the wider metadata community, in particular the Dublin Core (DC: http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/) and Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS: http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/gov_online/agls
/user_manual/intro.html) metadata initiatives, to ensure compatibility, as far as practicable, between related resource management tools.

The Schema inherits part of the Australian Government Locator Service set and extends it to address the sector specific needs of recordkeeping.

The relationship between DC, AGLS and RKMS can be described as follows:

The main objective of AGLS is to improve the visibility, accessibility and interoperability of government information and services through the provision of standardised Web-based resource descriptions which enable users to locate the information or service that they require. At the conception of the AGLS schema it was recognised that a high proportion of information resources described or required online to support Internet based government services and transactions would be records, i.e. that in many cases AGLS metadata would be assigned to government records. Thus the metadata defined in the AGLS schema went beyond that required for the bibliographic description of information resources as defined in the Dublin Core. It was also recognised that the prime purpose of assigning AGLS metadata, namely enabling resource discovery and resource retrieval by authorised users, is also one of the requirements of a recordkeeping system. The SPIRT Recordkeeping Team therefore sees AGLS metadata as essentially a subset of any standardised metadata set specified for recordkeeping purposes. 1

The National Archives of Australia Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies 1999 (http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/control/rkms
/summary.htm) was developed by the major industry partner in the Project in tandem with the SPIRT Schema. Essentially a sub-set of the RKMS, it is designed for implementation by Commonwealth government agencies in electronic systems which create and manage records.

Endnotes
1.Sue McKemmish, Glenda Acland and Barbara Reed, "Towards a Framework for Standardising Recordkeeping Metadata: The Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema", Records Management Journal, (November 1999): p.183)

About     Research     Publications     Consulting     Links     Sitemap

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

Last updated 23 June 2000.