EDRM System Implementation Toolkit

Component Metadata

If we look at the description of the records management metadata elements provided in the TNA document we find the following.

The "Identifier System Id" will be a code allocated by the system at the class; folder; part and record level.

The "Identifier Fileplan ID" is the reference derived from the classification scheme or fileplan. This is an accumulation of information inherited from higher levels of aggregation in the fileplan. The example cited by the TNA is that of an area of a hierarchical Fileplan concerned with data protection issues (under code DTZ) at the next level "regional office notifications are coded 004 and the identifier for West Midlands region is 047. Then the Fileplan ID for the second folder part on the West Midlands region is - DTZ/004/047/002.

In education organisations you will need to use the Functions Activity Transaction model expounded in the JISC "record life cycle report" to build a functions based classification scheme that would provide the required fileplan codes here.

The "title" field for the folder or class can be implemented as a natural or controlled language equivalent of the Fileplan ID where that is the naming convention in force. At the record level the title is more likely to be implemented as a free text title.

The "subject" field is reserved for keywords or phrases describing the subject content of the resource. Mainly applies at folder and record level. This is where institutions would benefit from an agreed thesaurus or controlled subject list. The Government Category List is used by central government and the Local Government Category List at Local government level.

The "description" field is to be used for additional data that may be more helpful to some users than the subject, title, Fileplan ID when searching. The "creator" field is the author in the case of internal documents but in the case of incoming documents the "Creator organisation" may be all the data available.

The "addressee" field is the person or persons to whom the record was addressed.

The "type" field applies at the record level. For TNA records purposes this centres on the need for DPA compliance. The default record type should determine the behaviour of almost all records.

For active document and content management additional metadata may need to be held including additional document type data and status data. You will need to gather initial additional indexing requirements at the information gathering stages - particularly for the pilot applications.

The e-GMS (Government Metadata Standard) defines a list of optional and core metadata elements as listed in the table.

If you read the document it provides controlled lists of values for each element where applicable. The e-GMS TYPE encoding scheme provides a very useful list of values for the Type element (25) above. You can add or delete terms as appropriate.

The final details of the metadata requirements and other management requirements are usually agreed with the preferred supplier at the specification stage.