Recordkeeping Roundtable

As recordkeeping professionals we have not been very successful in conveying what we believe metadata for records to be and its uses. This has been played out in numerous conversations within and outside of the profession in the wake of the (meta)data retention push by the current government.

Example of an Entity-Relationship diagram by Pável Calado

Do we actually share an understanding within the profession as to what recordkeeping metadata is and what it does? Can we agree? We Roundies would like to find out.

Roundtable co-founder Barbara Reed has said:

“Strictly defined and constraining specifications of recordkeeping metadata elements have failed to gain traction in the world of business systems. These models are needed as a canonical touchstone for reference, but these should not be the only desirable implementation model. Rather, we need to clearly articulate the principles by which our metadata approaches are to be measured. A recordkeeping informatics [1] focus would focus on:

• the transactional nature of action: ensure that we acknowledge and capture the multiple entities involved in transactions
• relationships: ensuring the multiple entities are linked to their actions in recorded form in ways that will enable them to be sustainable and interpretable over time
• traceability, not auditing: being able to tell the ‘story’ of the transaction. The who, where, when, what, why and how the record (or other data) came to be what it was
• persistence: ensuring that the identification of records of transactions is persistent and the links remain viable
• re-usability: ensuring that the record in its entirety (including the metadata) is constructed and sustained in ways that encourage re-use
• sustainability: that the records (including the metadata) remain viable through numerous system and technical environment changes
• dynamic: the ability to add to metadata over time to allow new and alternative interpretations of a single event or transaction to be added to (not replacing) the record.”

We would like to test out these principles, by conducting a series of Q&As with implementers. People who are designing systems, migrating them and using them. People who work with data. Archivists, technologists and others.

Can they see the value in paying attention to this stuff? Are they doing it now? What would be needed to implement useful, business focused systems that adhere to these principles?

Our implementers will be from different work environments, but all will have some form of recordkeeping obligation inherent in what they do.

We’ll be posting again soon with further details of this event, currently planned for late April 2015.

[1] For an explanation of recordkeeping informatics, see Frank Upward, ‘Recordkeeping Informatics: A discipline under construction’, September 2011. Available at: http://recordkeeping.net.au/2011/09/06/recordkeeping-informatics-a-discipline-under-construction/

The Recordkeeping Roundtable is pleased to announce an evening with Christine Kenneally, author of The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures. Christine will read from her book and be interviewed by the Roundtable’s Cassie Findlay.

Where: Cafe1812, Berkelouw Books, 19 Oxford St, Paddington. Directions

When: 6-8pm, Wednesday December 3

FREE | Gold coin donation for drinks and nibbles

Please RSVP here

Christine Kenneally is an award-winning journalist and author who has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, Time, New Scientist, The Monthly, and other publications. Her most recent book, The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, is a fascinating examination of the many ways in which we leave our trace; how these are passed on from one generation to the next, and how these can shape our personal and collective identities.

Our conversation will touch on Christine’s research into the origins and history of genealogy; the effects of the loss or deliberate suppression of records of the vulnerable; the rise of ‘Big Genie’ businesses like Ancestry.com and more. It promises to be thought-provoking and timely discussion in the context of the Royal Commission into child abuse, widespread expectations of instant online access to archives and changing understandings about official recordkeeping and who may participate in it.

With thanks to our hosts Berkelouw Books and Cafe 1812.

The Centre for Organisational and Social Informatics in association with the Recordkeeping Roundtable invites you to a second discussion of Chris Hurley’s ‘Modest Proposal’ for improving access to archives and other records.

• How can we make recordkeeping part of the online discovery world?
• Is digitising vast quantities of gathered records in established “collections” what we need?
• Do we need better ways of accessing un-gathered records online?
• Are the existing online discovery tools adequate?
• How can we break down the silos that separate one “collection” from another?

When and where

• Monday, 15 September 2014 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
• Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Clayfield Room (A1.34)
• To register: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/improving-access-to-archives-and-other-records-a-modest-proposal-continued-tickets-12714488377

The panel

Chris Hurley has been a recordkeeper for over forty years, in both government and the private sector. He was Keeper of Public Records in Victoria in the 1980s and A/g Chief Archivist of New Zealand in the (then) National Archives in the early 2000s. He now works for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. His particular interests lie in the areas of description, accountability, and archival legislation and he has taught and spoken extensively on these matters. Most of his many published articles and talks are now available on his web site descriptionguy.com

Luke Bacon is the Editor of Detention Logs and a web designer at Collagraph. Luke has built Detention Logs as an independent archive – an open, independent repository of public interest documents around a specific topic, where records of interest can be collected, organised and made accessible – and has proposed a set of principles for independent archiving projects.

Ailie Smith is a Research Archivist at the University of Melbourne’s eScholarship Research Centre. Her work includes documenting archival collections, building and maintaining databases, and the development and implementation of database outputs, including online content and standards-based xml. Ailie completed a Master of Business Information Systems degree at Monash University in 2012, specialising in archival and recordkeeping systems, and received the ASA’s Margaret Jennings Award

Kirsten Thorpe is the Coordinator of the Indigenous Unit at State Library of New South Wales. She is passionate about creating spaces of engagement for Aboriginal people to connect with archival sources documenting their history. Kirsten’s professional and research interests relate to the return of archival sources of material to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the opportunities that the digital domain presents for communities to be actively involved in managing their cultural heritage resources. Kirsten is a descendant of the Worimi people of Port Stephens, New South Wales and is descended from the Manton, Feeney and Newlin families.