Metadata, controlled vocabulary and directories: electronic document management and standards for records management

Abstract

The authors argue that the development and use of elaborate embedded directory structures or file plans, derived from functional analysis, should be a key component in the future development of the discipline of records management. Directory structures thus conceptualised are explicitly intellectual constructs and their construction will require considerable effort, particularly if they are to be portable. Their greatest advantage is that they provide a coherent schema from which to derive folder/file names that can be embedded in metadata. One of the major challenges is to design systems that derive metadata from the directory structure or file plan and attach them automatically to documents at the point of creation, thereby minimising the need for human intervention and opportunities for human error.

The post‐custodial/pro‐custodial argument from a records management perspective

“…24 Michael Moss and I have argued for the adoption of what we in the UK generally call file plans and our colleagues overseas often term classification schemes, based on functional analysis. 25 The National Archives of the United Kingdom has recently announced its intention of going down the latter route. 26 The UK Parliament has made substantive progress in the same direction.…”

What does PLMS (product lifecycle management systems) manage: Data or documents? Complementarity and contingency for SMEs

“…Organizations have to produce more structured documents according to recognized modeling standards to allow sharing and system interoperability with their partners, but also within the organization. Document modeling constitutes an ontological meta-level that lets users manage documents, but it does not allow users to totally manage the product information the documents contain [45,46].…”

Electronic records management strategies by government agencies in Kenya

“…While managing and using e-records, it is important to incorporate metadata to aid future retrieval of these records. Tough and Moss (2003) explains that the development and use of elaborate embedded directory structures or file plans, derived from functional analysis, should be a key component in the future development of the discipline of records management. Metadata makes up these elaborate embedded directory structure.…”