Executive Summary | Contents | Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
Records are a crucial organisational resource. The NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard has been developed as a tool to assist NSW public offices to manage records in efficient and accountable ways.
Recordkeeping metadata is information that helps records to be identifiable, accessible and meaningful. It also supports the management of records for as long as they are needed. Capture and management of this information has traditionally been a routine part of records management. The majority of systems designed to control and manage records, such as automated records management products, should already capture this information. In these cases, the standard acts as a benchmark against which these systems can be measured and improved.
It is likely that the standard will be of most benefit in environments where records are not currently controlled or managed. In electronic business systems, for instance, record controls are not often included in the functional requirements of the system. In these situations, the NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard can be used, in conjunction with State Records' Standard on Recordkeeping in the Electronic Business Environment and the Manual for Designing and Implementing Recordkeeping Systems, to build appropriate record controls into such systems.
The NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard forms part of the suite of tools developed by State Records to help public offices meet their obligations under the State Records Act 1998. In particular, it aims to assist each public office to make and keep full and accurate records of the activities of the office(s.12(1)). Unlike other standards issued by State Records, the NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard is a technical standard for achieving better metadata management rather than being compliance oriented.
This standard is issued under the State Records Act and applies to NSW public offices, as defined in s.3 of the Act.
The standard consists of two parts:
- Part 1 is an introductory document which provides an overview of its metadata requirements
- Part 2 is a technical specification, described below.
Contents
Part 1: Summary of the NSW recordkeeping metadata standard
Part 2: Technical specification
Acknowledgements
State Records acknowledges the work and assistance of the Records Continuum Research Group and the National Archives of Australia whose metadata standards, the Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema and Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies respectively, contributed significantly to the development of the NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard and associated NSW Recordkeeping Metadata Standard - Technical Specification.
© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority of New South Wales, 2001.
This work may be freely reproduced for personal, educational or government purposes. Permission must be received from State Records Authority for or all other uses. See our copyright notice for contact details.
ISBN 0-7313-5378-1
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