Mid Sweden University

The purpose of this case study has been to investigate the development and implementation of metadataschemas in two swedish governmental agencies. The interest of metadata in relation to records managment has been significant lately due to the challenges posed by the digital environment. This has been manifesteted in international standards such as TS/ISO 23081 Metadata for records and the MoReq 2 metadata specification issued by the DLM-forum. The extent to which these standard has influenced practice seems less overt however which has been one main motivation for this study.   The research questions adressed are: What has been the main purposes for the development of the metadataschemas? Which standards and role-models have influenced the metadataschemas? How has the implementation of the schemas been carried out? The case study has been conducted using a qualitative research method. The primary method of data collection has been qualitative interwievs and analysis of documentation. The results has been analysed using the Records-continuum model according to which records can serve different purposes in time and space.   The results shows that the motives behind the development of the schemas has been much the same as for example improved description and access. The choice of standards influencing the schemas has been different however. This has affected the possibilities of the agencies to describe records in context and safeguard their evidentual value. The metadataschema developed for Skatteverket has mainly followed a record-centric model of description. The underlying assumption has been a retro-active stance where records are regarded as existing objects that process through a-priori defined life-stages. In contrast, the metadataschema developed for Trafikverket emphasizes the relationship with records and the business process in which they are created. The study confirm findings of previous research that certain metadatatypes such as metadata describing the logical strucure of records and process metadata relating to the subsequent use and handling of records are used to a lesser extent. ISO 23081:1 Metadata for records was issued during the development of the metadataframework for Trafikverket and influenced the further work to some extent. In order to investigate the actual impact of this standard further quantiative oriented studies are needed.