Overview of projects of conceptual model development for archival

description

Workshop on Conceptual modeling for Archives, Libraries and Museums

Helsinki, Finland, January 28-29, 2010

Claire Sibille, Archives of France, secretary of the ICA committee on Best Practices and Standards

This talk will cover:

Basic rules and standards for archival description

Projects for an archival conceptual modelICA/Committee on Best Practices and Standards

An example of ICA standards implementation (and of their relationships) : ICA-AtoM software

NEDA project (Spain)

Series system and recordkeeping metadata project (Australia)

Elements of discussion

Archives

“Materials created or received by a person, family, or

organization, public or private, in the conduct of their

affairs and preserved because of the enduring value

contained in the information they contain or as evidence

of the functions and responsibilities of their creator,

especially those materials maintained using the principles

of provenance, original order, and collective control.”

(Society of American Archivists, A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology)

Provenance

“Provenance is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection. The principle of provenance or the respect des fonds dictates that records of different origins (provenance) be kept separate to preserve their context.”

(Society of American Archivists, A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology)

Original order

Order in which it was maintained when it was last used by its creator(s)

The principle of original order, therefore, dictates that, wherever possible, this order must be retained when an archive is arranged

In some cases however, it is accepted that the original order of an archive may not be discernible and, in such cases, the archivist is free to impose a sensible order of his/her own

Hierarchical model of the levels of arrangement for a fonds

S ub -se ries

Item Item

F ile

S u b -se ries

S e ries S e ries

S u b-fon ds S ub-fon ds

Item

F ile

S e ries

Fo n ds

Multilevel Description

Archival arrangement is reflected in the description of archives through the use of multilevel description

Describe from the general to the specific

The information provided should be relevant to the level of description

Descriptions should be linked

Information should not be repeated

Contextual description

Provenance is the primary locus of archival intellectual control and description

Describing archives means providing information about their creators and about the historical context of their creation

Sometimes, the relationships of records with the functions that generated them are more important than the relationships of the records with the organizations that created them

ICA standards

ISAD(G) (1994, 1999) => archival materials

ISAAR(CPF) (1996, 2004) => entities (corporate bodies, persons and families) associated with the creation and maintenance of archives

ISDF (2008) => functions of entities associated with the creation and maintenance of archival materials

ISDIAH (2008) => institutions with archival holdings (archival institutions, museums, libraries, etc.)

Encoding standards

EAD = Encoded Archival Description (DTD,1998, 2002; XML schema [non finalized], 2007) => archival materials

EAC-CPF = Encoded Archival Context (XML schema, 2010) => corporate bodies, persons, families

EAC-F = Encoded Archival Context - Functions (project) => functions of entities associated with the creation and maintenance of archival materials

EAG = Encoded Archival Guide => institutions with archival holdings (archival institutions, museums, libraries, etc.)

Problems with ICA standards

Provide standardized sets of elements for describing archival materials, their repositories, their creators, and functions of the creators

Modeling is the next phase, the one in which entities are identified as well as their attributes and we can form the network of relationships among data elements

For instance, ISAAR(CPF) and ISDIAH entities share numerous attributes; an entity which is an institution with archival holdings is also going to be an entity which creates and maintains records

Problems with EAD

EAD is document centric standard, not a data-centric standard

Archival description is hierarchical, but we need to be able to form complete and flexible system of archival description that would interrelate record description, creator description and the description of functions and activities

reveal relationships within a single fonds that a hierarchical representation alone does not reveal

EAC-CPF

EAC-CPF is more data-centric: it defines a set of elements used to describe agent entities and the structure of interrelationships amongst those elements

EAC-CPF has been created to accommodate a variety of identities

Several projects aim to develop, implement and test the integration of EAC-CPF in existing international archival description and name authority systems

ICA work in progress

The Committee on Best Practices and Standards (CBPS) develops a single reference model for descriptive standards, enabling archivists

to describe different types of entities

to document these entities in relationship to each other at particular points of time, or over time

Using the ICA’s descriptive standards, it is now possible to develop a three-entity model for archival description

Archival materials

Functions

Agents (CPF)

are done by / do

are documented in / document

are created and used by

create and use

Entities / Relationships Model

Linking ICA standards

ICA-AtoM

Acronym for 'Access to Memory’; an example of implementation of ICA standards (their relationships)

Web-based, open-source, multi-lingual archival description software

Enables institutions to make their archival holdings available online, especially those who could not otherwise afford to do so

Supports multi-repository collections

ICA-AtoM architecture includes a number of entity types

ICA-AtoM: entities and their relationships

Spain, NEDA project

NEDA = Normas Españolas de Descripción archivística (Spanish standards for archival description)

Commission appointed by the Ministry of Culture to develop a conceptual model for archival description and requirements of basic data for describing archival materials and functions

Part 1 was published in 2009 (identifying types of entities)

http://en.www.mcu.es/archivos/MC/CNEDA/Documentos.html

Functionsdo / are done

by

document / are

documented in

create and manage / are created and managed by

NEDA: entities and their relationships

Archival materials

Agents

Mandates

PlacesSubjects

govern / are governed by

have for subject / are subjects of

have for subject / are subjects of

FunctionsSub-functionsActivities/ProcessesTransactions

do / are done by

document / are

documented in

create and manage / are created and managed by

NEDA: types and subtypes of entities

Archival materialsRecordgroupSeriesFile ...

AgentPersonFamilyCorporate body Mandates

PlacesSubjects

govern / are governed by

have for subject / are subjects of

have for subject / are subjects of

The Australian Series System

Used to describe both 'current' and 'historical' records A more dynamic approach to the intellectual control of records

Accommodates documentation of multiple provenanceThe series is the highest level of archival description

Creation of separate but linked descriptions of records, records creators and their functions and activities

The series system does not require fonds-level descriptive inputs, but it is capable of generating fonds-level descriptive outputs whenever such outputs are needed

Recordkeeping Metadata Project

Recordkeeping Metadata Project

Recordkeeping Metadata Project

Elements of discussion

A few standards and related formats but only modeling projects

Archivists are interested in modeling for providing interoperability in collaborative projects

For instance, the APEnet portal will enable archival resources to be harvested by the EUROPEANA

Elements of discussion

Methodology:to start from conceptual models developed for ICA-AtoM or in Spain and in Australia and from the EAD mapping to CIDOC-CRM with a constant reference to ICA standards

or to develop a conceptual model from ICA standards on the basis of the other modeling projects

Elements of discussion

Methodology: one archival entity with 3 sub-types (for archival materials, agents and functions)

develop a common entity-type (super-type) based on attributes common to ISAD, ISAAR/ISDIAH and ISDF which might never be used to document anything but which would confer attributes on the sub-types (for instance, existence date)

bring the 3 sub-types into alignment with the super-type and with each other

the sub-entities could be used to confer attributes on sub-sub-entities

Elements of discussion

Methodology:identify classes/subclasses and properties for archives

for instance, the archival entity Function could be broken down into multiple classes, each with specific properties, and the class E7 Activity could be enriched from ISDF

see whether targets of the properties are appropriate for archives

Elements of discussion

Work planperiodicity of meetings

funding

participants (required competencies for developing a conceptual model)

relationships with ICA work (a meeting is planned at the end of May at Paris) and with EAD evolutions