Manual for the Design and Implementation of Recordkeeping Systems (dirks)

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Tip: Metadata can be scalable
Tip: Talk to staff about their metadata requirements

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What is recordkeeping metadata?

Recordkeeping metadata is data that facilitates the use and management of records. Particularly in electronic applications, metadata can be a key means of improving your system and helping it to meet recordkeeping requirements.

Recordkeeping metadata is a tool that enables you to describe records, people and business activities in a suitable amount of detail to ensure:

better information accessibility
improved records management, and
greater accountability in business operations.

Tip: Metadata can be applied in a variety of forms

Remember that metadata can be employed in both electronic and paper based recordkeeping environments. How you deploy it depends on your business needs.

ARMS Recordkeeping Metadata Standard

Any recordkeeping metadata you decide to implement should comply with ARMS' Standard on Recordkeeping Metadata. This standard identifies the metadata elements that should be employed within recordkeeping systems. It is a useful tool that can assist with your metadata implementation.

^ Tip: Metadata can be scalable

With recordkeeping metadata, it is rarely one size fits all. You may require a range of metadata strategies to meet the needs of your business environment. Remember that a metadata strategy can cover a section or part of your office's business or the whole organization. It can relate to one or more of your functions. Consider the disparate needs of your business areas, your variety of staff. Metadata is a flexible tool. Be sure to implement it in a flexible manner.

DIRKS and recordkeeping metadata

The DIRKS Manual can be used to develop metadata strategies that meet your organizational needs, constraints and objectives and to implement these strategies in effective and accountable recordkeeping systems.

You may choose to do a specific DIRKS project that is focussed only on metadata implementation, but it is more likely that metadata will be considered as an integral aspect of broader DIRKS projects you undertake.

The steps below flag the various different points at which you may want to consider metadata and its implementation during your DIRKS project.

Identifying your recordkeeping metadata requirements

Undertaking Steps A-C of the DIRKS methodology can help you to identify the types of requirements your department/office has concerning recordkeeping metadata, or how recordkeeping metadata can be used to help you meet other requirements.

Step A: Preliminary investigation

To understand metadata needs, you will need to start by conducting some broad research into your department/office, how it operates and its broad technological framework. The sources in Step A will help you to understand what business is performed in the organization, broad legal requirements affecting this business and the stakeholders that impact upon your business operations. It also tells you about risks and organizational information needs, some of which you can addressed through appropriate metadata implementation.

If you are intending to develop a metadata scheme for one function or business unit at a time, you should still broadly analyse your business in Step A to get an overview of operations, but you can start to concentrate more on those sources that relate to the particular function or business unit you wish to focus on.

Step B: Analysis of business activity

In Step B you focus on your department/office's business activity and how this activity is performed. The analysis in Step B allows you to start defining:

what areas of your business might require more detailed metadata than others
the scope and content of metadata schemes, and
the ways metadata might be used to meet business objectives.

The business classification scheme, a key product of your Step B research, is a tool that can be used to populate certain values in your metadata scheme. Products created from the business classification scheme, such as a keyword thesaurus or a disposal authority, can also be used to populate your metadata scheme.

Step C: Identification of recordkeeping requirements

In Step C you identify the recordkeeping requirements affecting your department/section. In relation to metadata, these requirements may be of two types:

those that specify particular metadata requirements - such as 'name of complainant must be captured with every complaint received'. These types of requirements point to specific metadata elements that you should be able to provide within your systems.
those that can be satisfied, completely or partially, through the use of metadata - such as 'official status files must be retained for 75 years'. Metadata can be used to facilitate the management and appropriate disposal of records to help to ensure that they are retained for as long as required.

Compiling a list of the recordkeeping requirements affecting your office as a whole, or each specific business unit, will provide you with a means to develop a comprehensive metadata strategy for your department/office. It will identify how and where metadata should be applied to help you meet your business needs.

^ Tip: Talk to staff about their metadata requirements

Talking to action officers about their business needs and information requirements is a very useful way to identify recordkeeping requirements concerning metadata. Staff will know the types of information that will facilitate their jobs or enable them to access information better. Use this feedback to help identify the metadata that should be captured to support a range of business activities.

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