Lifecycle Metadata for Digital Objects

1. Lifecycle Metadata for Digital Objects October 23, 2006 Creation Metadata

2. What happens at file creation? • Consciously • You place into the file everything you think it needs in order to be useful • You save it with a file name that will help you find it again (you hope) • Unconsciously (or unwillingly) • Metadata is added using environmental information • Metadata is added using information elicited from you

3. Metadata from creating app (Word 2000 Statistics)

4. Metadata from creating app (Word 2000 General)

5. Metadata controlled by the user (Word 2000 Summary)

6. Metadata controlled by the user (Word 2000 Custom)

7. Viewing Word Metadata in XML • Add relevant metadata to your Word document as outlined above • If you have Word 2003, save the document as XML • Open the document in an XML editor • If not, save the document as HTML • View the document in Notepad or another ASCII editor or view source from the HTML document displayed in a browser

8. The future of XML in Word? • Word has already provided XML markup of its Document Properties and Custom Document Properties metadata for several versions back • In Word 2003 a native (and patented) XML schema was used • In Office 2007 XML will be systematically included in the form of a configurable RM template

9. Future of XML at Microsoft • XML and the whole WC3 model are becoming part of the emerging Microsoft operating environment from servers to desktop • Note move to a standard IE interface for system functions • Steps ongoing to build 5015.2-like records management functions into office suite as part of the Enterprise Content Management architecture based on the SharePoint Portal Server, so as to get business from governments • Creation metadata thus vital to this whole scheme

10. Open Office metadata • Note Open Office metadata itself is just as complex as the new Microsoft standard • OO object is packaged as a group of files (see specification, pp. 541-545: the package is a zip file with an XML manifest file containing a list of files and their types) • This means also being concerned with zip file format standard, compression, etc. etc.

11. [non-Microsoft] Uses of creation metadata • Establishing prior art for an invention • Identifying who knew what and when • Showing how an object fits into the larger scheme of things (preserving the “archival bond”) • Keeping track of versions of an object • Providing assurance of reliability: that the object is what it purports to be • Anchoring the object in the place and time of its origin

12. Placement of creation metadata • Same options as for all metadata • Embedded within the object (Word metadata) • Wrapped around the object (object is embedded in metadata document: Word document containing metadata embedded in XML document extracting reliability metadata) • Captured, communicated, or kept separately from the object (non-text objects but not only them)

13. UBC Creation Metadata I • The notion of a complete record • Medium • Content • Form • Persons (author, writer, addressee, creator) • Acts • Archival bond • Transmission (intent, capability, success)

14. UBC Creation Metadata II • “Elements of intellectual form” inside the record: • Date (time of transmission and receipt; place of transmission) • Superscription or attestation (author/originator) • Inscription (all addressees and receivers) • Title and/or subject • Disposition/purpose (the intention of the record)

15. UBC Creation Metadata III • The notion of reliable record; must in addition to completeness have: • “Document profile” as container for the object • Date available (created or received) • Time available (created or received) • [Date and time of further transmission] • Author • Addressee • Subject [classification code, registry number]

16. DoD 5015.2 Recordkeeping Standard: Assumptions • Note that 5015.2 assumes an entire detailed recordkeeping system that fully accounts for all records at the series, folder, and individual level • The “file plan” defines the recordkeeping system; the “schedule” is applied to entities defined in the file plan

17. Unique identifier* Supplemental marking list Subject/Title* Media type* Format* Date filed* Publication date* Date received Author/Originator* Addressee* Other addressees* Originating organization* Location Vital record indicator Vital record review/update cycle* User-defined fields DoD 5015.2 metadata, *=mandatory

18. DoD 5015.2 email metadata mapping • Sender (Author/Originator) • Primary addressees (Addressee) • Other addressees (Other addressee) • Date/time sent (Publication date) • Date/time received (Date received) • Subject (Subject/Title)

19. Date/time and persons: vital to records’ reliability • Without date/time, not possible to manage records by date: cutoffs, retention, destruction • Without persons (author, recipient, creator), nobody would care • Without hierarchical set of data categories, no structure • Note dependence on systems in which records creation are embedded

20. What about non-text objects? • Creation metadata for non-text objects covers much the same ground: • Information about occasion of creation, including technical information (version of coftware, settings) • Information about creator, intention, receiver • Information about the object itself

21. Connecting metadata to a non-text object • Object is kept in specifically-defined file structure • File name/ID is crucial to the connection • XLink is used to connect the two using a series of XML attributes: <graphic xmlns:xlink=“http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink” xlink:type=“simple” xlink:href=“usr/local/coll1/object9.tif” xlink:show=“new” xlink:actuate=“onRequest” />