Records and information management policies and procedures must specify the role of recordkeeping metadata in ensuring authenticity, reliability, and integrity.

Recordkeeping metadata is a core component of managing records, particularly electronic records. As such, it should be explicitly referenced in the records and
information policies of a public office or local authority. In particular, the distinction between recordkeeping point of capture metadata and process metadata should be included, as this is a key factor in making recordkeeping
different to other information communities’ understanding and use of metadata.
See Guide to Developing a Recordkeeping Policy at:
http://continuum.archives.govt.nz/ .

Responsibility for:

·         creating, maintaining and altering an organisation’s recordkeeping metadata schemas and encoding schemes

·         attribution and verification of point of capture recordkeeping metadata
 

must be assigned, documented,
communicated and regularly reviewed.

Recordkeeping metadata elements are often modified for specific implementation purposes. Responsibility must be assigned for identifying additions or variations to the organisation’s recordkeeping metadata schema.
Local encoding schemes are used to manage classification, security, disposal actions, titling protocols, and other areas of recordkeeping. Responsibility for their use and
documentation must be assigned.
Employees have responsibilities for records creation which may include manually adding metadata. Procedures should be defined to apply quality checking across manually attributed metadata, whether this is by the creator, by sampling or by automatic analysis.
These responsibilities must be assigned and documented.
(See also Requirement 10.)

Rules relating to changing recordkeeping metadata must be defined.

Records must be tamper-proof and authentic. Changing recordkeeping metadata can significantly alter the meaning, accessibility, and authenticity of the record object. Tight procedural controls are needed to define who, and in what situations, may change (as opposed to ‘add to’) already existing recordkeeping metadata.
In some limited circumstances, change to metadata may be permitted – for example,
in maintaining correct personal details under the Privacy Act 1993.
(See also Requirement 11.)

Metadata schema and
encoding schemes must be maintained, documented and communicated.

Metadata schema and encoding schemes are key control tools for electronic recordkeeping and explain the parameters and meanings of metadata values allocated to electronic records.
The metadata schema and encoding schemes must be maintained and kept up-to-date to reflect business requirements and particularly language usage.
Some organisations will do this through a formal metadata registry structure that manages changes and versions, others will not use such formal structures. Regardless, versions and a record of changes to these control tools must be maintained and their
validity periods clearly identified.
Metadata schema and associated encoding schemes are also records and should be managed as such.

Metadata in all business-critical
systems/applications which
create records must be mapped to the recordkeeping metadata schema in the accompanying Technical Specifications.

It is expected systems/applications that manage electronic records, such as Electronic Document/Records Management Systems (EDRMS), comply with this standard. However, many other systems/applications exist within organisations, some of which are critical to undertaking the business of the organisation. Each organisation will determine what constitutes a business critical system/application. These systems are to be mapped to the
recordkeeping metadata schema established in the Technical Specifications.

Creating mappings between the business system/application and the recordkeeping metadata schema in the accompanying Technical Specifications will:

·         increase knowledge and understanding of the recordkeeping metadata schema

·         enable extraction of records from business systems/applications for migration to new systems, transfer to another agency or for longer-term retention

·         enable organisations to determine strategies for maintaining compliant records within the business system/application.