Recordkeeping metadata initiatives

In parallel, the archives and records professions have also been investigating what information might be required to support the long-term preservation of digital objects. As might be expected, their primary focus is on records, defined by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Records Management standard (ISO 15489:2002) as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business" (Healy, 2001). Recordkeeping metadata specifications, therefore, tend to have a strong emphasis on the development of systems that ensure the authenticity and integrity of electronic records. One of the earliest metadata specifications was based on the Business Acceptable Communications (BAC) model developed by the University of Pittsburgh's Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping project (known as the Pittsburgh Project). This proposed a metadata structure that would contain a 'handle layer' for basic discovery data while other layers would store information on terms and conditions of use, data structures, provenance, content and the use of the record since its creation (Bearman & Sochats, 1996). Together with other developments, the Pittsburgh Project inspired a series of recordkeeping metadata initiatives, especially in Australia. One of the most interesting of these was the development of a framework known as the Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema (RKMS) by a research project led by Monash University. The project, amongst other things, attempted to specify and standardize the whole range of recordkeeping metadata that would be required to manage records in digital environments (McKemmish, et al., 1999). The RKMS also was concerned with supporting interoperability with more generic metadata standards like the Dublin Core and relevant resource discovery schemas like the AGLS Metadata Standard. The schema defined a highly structured