General Application Guidance

A1. Yes, the Operational Standard applies to both data and information. According to the LAC Act, a record is “any documentary material other than a publication, regardless of medium or form.” Furthermore, a government record is “a record that is under the control of a government institution”^{Footnote 3} (including any unpublished information and/or data). In the context of the Act, control means having decision-making authority over the records.

LAC’s policy instruments for its government records disposition program generally use the same terminology as the LAC Act (“record”), although some older documents may also reference “information resources of business value (IRBV)” reflecting a past practice.

A2. The Operational Standard’s requirements apply to all digital archival records. Additional considerations may apply to certain types of digital archival records, including those best treated as datasets (e.g., records in relational databases, geomatic data, computer-aided design (CAD) data) owing to the complex requirements to preserve and maintain accessibility of these materials.

When preparing for transfer, please talk with your departmental information management (IM) and information technology staff as well as your LAC portfolio archivist to discuss the best options for extracting and structuring the records and their metadata. These discussions should include identifying any additional information or metadata that should be transferred with the records beyond the minimal set.

A3. An item is the smallest conceptually indivisible archival unit that is complete in itself and can be distinguished from a group. It is typically one individual thing: a document, a spreadsheet, an email, a database, etc.

An aggregation is a grouping of records (e.g., files, series) accumulated and organized to reflect the creator’s activities. In the context of the Operational Standard, an aggregation may also refer to a grouping of records transferred together at one time.

A transfer is a grouping of records moved as part of their scheduled disposition in a single transaction from a government institution to LAC or another repository. Transfer occurs via the application of a valid DA or transfer agreement by the transferring institution.

A4. In some GC institutions, the validation of the DA may be ongoing, and further precision regarding which records have archival value may be pending. In this situation, a GC institution must protect any records of possible archival value until LAC issues written authorization for the GC institution to dispose of the records. The Operational Standard should be applied to systems that contain records as the validation exercise goes forward in case those records are archival.

A5. A new program may already be covered by a DA but may need to undergo a validation exercise. Being a new program does not necessarily mean it is not covered under an existing DA. Programs are often created to fulfill an activity linked to an institution’s mandate. If an institution’s legislated mandate has not changed since the DA was issued, a new program area is likely already covered by the DA, although it may need to be newly validated. Please contact your LAC archivist for clarification and apply the Operational Standard in the meantime.

A6. No. The obligations for the mandatory metadata concepts are not all required all the time. Appendix C of the Operational Standard explains how each concept must be applied. There are several options:

• “Mandatory” means the information is always needed.
• “Mandatory where present” means that if the concept was implemented as part of life cycle management, then LAC would like to have it at transfer, but if it was not implemented it does not need to be provided at transfer. This might make it easier for you to meet the standard’s requirements if you are working with legacy systems for managing records and are missing some of the requirements.
• “For items” means that the metadata is required for each individual record (or item).
• “For aggregations” means that the metadata is required for groupings of records, particularly at the level of the file or series.
• A file is a category in a file classification plan.
• A record series is a grouping of similar records related to a file classification plan.
• There can be many files in a single series.
• “For transfers” means to provide the information at the time of transfer for the group of records.
• “At transfer” means that you only need to collect the information at the time of transfer. It’s not necessary to create and manage the information earlier in the life cycle.

Additional information about how many instances a metadata concept can apply to each item, aggregation, or transfer (also known as cardinality), is provided in Question 9 as well as in Analysis: Repeatability of concepts.

A7. Any possible exceptions to the Operational Standard need to be discussed with the assigned LAC portfolio archivist.

A8. The Operational Standard presents the minimum metadata required by LAC for the continued preservation of digital archival records.

In addition to other metadata created and managed with the records, there may be supplementary documentation that could help protect or describe the records, such as metadata structure standards^{Footnote 4}, data dictionaries^{Footnote 5}, controlled vocabularies^{Footnote 6}, and/or ontologies^{Footnote 7}. GC institutions should maintain this information along with their records throughout the life cycle, to support their ongoing use. This documentation could be provided to LAC at transfer as supplementary information.

If you have additional information at the time of transfer, discuss it with the LAC portfolio archivist.

A9. Yes, it may be necessary to repeat a concept many times in some cases, whereas in others it may only be necessary once. With metadata, this is referred to as cardinality.

For example:

• A transfer should only have one total extent statement (this would be made up of the total extent of items and/or aggregates).
• In contrast, one record could have one title or multiple titles if there are parallel titles in different languages or subtitles; thus, the concept of title could be repeated for a single record.

Additional guidance on this repetition is available in Analysis: Repeatability of concepts.

A10. LAC is interested in different aspects of the context of records’ creation, including the business context (the programs and activities within which records were created), the institutional context (teams and business units in the broader organizational structure that created and used them), and the record-keeping context (where the records sit within the classification structure and the records to which they relate).

The purpose of the mandatory concept “classification code” provides much of this information as it gives “an understanding of the business context within which the record was created, captured, managed; the hierarchical structure according to which it was organized by the creator for use and retrieval; and its relationship to other records.” This explanation includes business context as well as aspects of the record-keeping context, or the ways in which the records were organized and related to one another.

Another aspect of records context in which LAC is interested is the custodial history, such as changes in custody or ownership of records over time. For example, one GC institution might create a series of records for a program area that is transferred to a different GC institution. Knowing who created, maintained, modified, and used records over time can help assure that they were protected and unchanged while also documenting their use.

Because LAC is interested in more than just the business context, mentioning “context” (unqualified) in Section 4 is a good choice because it is general and inclusive.

A11. For an archives, “description” is a core function that enables researchers to discover archival records. Description is also part of how an archives establishes and maintains control over the records by identifying, contextualizing, and characterizing them (e.g., title, creator, date/time, extent) and continuously documenting their location. Archival control through description helps ensure the ongoing integrity of the records. Archival descriptive standards explain which information is important to use for the purpose of an archives’ ongoing management of its holdings as well as enabling access to the preserved records through publicly shared descriptions in a catalogue or other discovery tool.

Metadata originally created by a GC institution as part of the creation, use, and ongoing management of digital archival records pre-transfer may be reusable by LAC in the archival description function. Complete, accurate, and detailed metadata from a GC institution helps provide some of the necessary archival descriptive information, while also helping enable long-term discovery, access, and use of the records.

A12. Some metadata needed to document disposition may be similar to some of the metadata requirements for archival records. However, the purpose and timing of the two sets of metadata are different.

For example, metadata needed to identify records for disposition, such as title, dates, and disposition authorization, are required for both LAC’s requirements and to document disposition; however, information such as retention specifications, method and date of disposition, and internal authorization is solely required to document disposition.

Additionally, when records are transferred to LAC for the archival segment of their life cycle, LAC provides the GC institution with a control number or identifier for the records in LAC’s systems (e.g., registration control number or accession number). Because LAC gives this information to the transferring department, it cannot be included in required metadata that the GC institution must give to LAC.

A13. Whether it is possible to provide metadata for embedded content depends on how the computer file is managed in the source system. For example, email attachments can be stored as encoded text in the message instead of as separate computer files. In other cases, a grouping of separate computer files may together be considered as a single record, such as in the case of audiovisual files with separate audio and video computer files or separate computer files that are needed all together to render a single digital map. Because of these variances, you should discuss compound records with your LAC archivist to determine how the Operational Standard may apply.

A14. The required metadata can be found in several places such as embedded inside computer files, configured and stored in record-keeping systems separate from computer files, and maintained in separate documentation (e.g., data dictionaries, transfer forms, or file inventory that a GC institution would prepare and submit when it comes time to transfer).

First, some metadata is embedded in computer files. A computer file is defined in the Operational Standard as “a collection of information for use on a computer that is treated as a unit for storage.” In a nutshell, this is an electronic document, object, or dataset. You might think of it as a .pdf file or Excel spreadsheet. Some metadata can be embedded directly in these computer files, and there are tools that can pull this metadata out.

Second, metadata can be found in systems for managing records or information. These range from folder structure names and network file paths in a shared drive to categories and attributes in GCDOCS to document categories, names, and dates in SharePoint. Some of these an employee might enter, while some others might be captured automatically by the system when saving or updating computer files in these spaces. This metadata is associated or related to the computer file but is stored separately.

Third, GC institutions may maintain metadata about the records’ structure, format, relationships, usage, or meaning in documentation like data dictionaries. GC institutions must also complete a transfer request form and provide a file-level inventory of the records being transferred. Some of the information in this transfer documentation is required by the Operational Standard on Digital Archival Records’ Metadata.

When records are being migrated or moved, including when extracting them from record-keeping systems, care should be taken to not change or damage embedded or associated metadata.

Questions about gathering metadata from records can be addressed to the portfolio archivist.

A15. “Authoritative source” in the Operational Standard refers to where metadata can often be found. In some cases, embedded metadata (i.e., metadata stored as part of the computer file itself) can provide the information as it is captured automatically by the application being used. In other cases, associated metadata (i.e., metadata stored externally from the computer file(s) with which it is associated) will be required because the metadata is not collected automatically.

The potential source will depend upon the system storing the records.

A16. It is recommended that when systems are put into place, the requirements of the Operational Standard are considered to ensure that GC institutions are in compliance.

For legacy systems, including shared drives, existing metadata (embedded and associated) should be reviewed to determine compliance with the Operational Standard. If it does not appear that all elements are present, institutions should contact their portfolio archivist to discuss what is missing and possible ways forward.

In addition, many of the 12 metadata concepts required are likely information you’re already managing with records, even in legacy systems (e.g., title, date/time). You can do an assessment of your metadata against the Operational Standard’s requirements when preparing for transfer and discuss options and issues with your archivist at the time.

A17. While these concepts became mandatory the moment the Operational Standard took effect, LAC is not implementing a time frame approach for compliance. We’re hoping that the flexibility of the requirements with the “mandatory where present” obligation will help accommodate records from all source systems, including those considered as legacy. This said, given the availability of the Operational Standard, we anticipate that current and future systems should be able to meet the requirements on a day-forward basis. Legacy systems may require a more flexible approach. In cases where you are uncertain if your records can meet the Operational Standard, please contact your assigned portfolio archivist.

A18. For those GC institutions subject to TB policy, the Policy on Service and Digital identifies authorities related to IM governance (e.g., s.4.1.3.1). Furthermore, the Directive on Security Management assigns responsibility for coordinating, managing, and providing advice and services related to departmental security controls (s.4.2.1), including security categorizations specified in its Appendix J that must be applied in accordance with its Appendix E (s.2.2.2.1).

LAC policy instruments do not identify IM governance authorities.

A19. According to the Access Policy Framework (s6.3), LAC has an obligation to make its holdings discoverable and available and the associated metadata accessible. A lack of transfer of one or more of the metadata concepts in the Operational Standard may be a barrier to the provision of access to records by LAC because of the decreased likelihood that the materials can be made searchable, findable, and accessible online.

Responsibility is shared both by the transferring GC institution—through the metadata about the records it sends to LAC—and by LAC, which continues to create and associate metadata to records to enable their discovery, preservation, and access after acquiring them. How LAC chooses to present collections metadata in its catalogue or on its website can also affect accessibility. Which metadata LAC receives from GC institutions, which metadata LAC afterwards generates, and how LAC provides this metadata to clients all affect accessibility.

A20. One way LAC may monitor compliance with the Operational Standard is through timely transfers of digital archival records supported by LAC staff, including the portfolio archivist.

Supplementary guidance is being prepared to help transferring institutions determine how the metadata requirements are currently being met as part of transfer preparation and documentation. These tools will assist in the preparation of documents for transfer and the determination of any missing items from the Operational Standard.