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8. Details of Individual Metadata Elements
8.5 Agent Institution Name
Attributes
Attribute
Value
Identifying Attributes
Name
agentInstitutionName
Label
Agent Institution Name
Defined by
Government of Canada Records Management Metadata Standard - agentInstitutionName
Element URI
[To be actioned by Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat before publication]
Definitional Attributes
Definition
Official name of the institution of the individual who performed an action on a record or file at the time the action was taken.
Purpose
To identify the institution of the individual that has taken a specific action on a record or file for evidentiary requirements.
Rationale
"Techniques to ensure capture of records may include…d) systems which profile or template the actions undertaken in doing business, which…4) identify who has accessed a record…" ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 9.3
"Managing the use of records encompasses a) identifying the records system user permissions associated with individuals and their positions within the organization…" ISO Technical Report 15489-2, s. 4.3.8
"At the point of record capture, metadata should include metadata about agents associated with records and their management. Ensuring metadata about agents that are captured, enables contextual information about agents involved in record creation and management to be documented… Agent metadata at the point of record capture should
a) identify the agents involved in records creation,
b) identify the agents involved in records management processes and their authorisation…
c) identify the agents authorized to access records." ISO Technical Specification 23081-1, s. 9.4.1
"The role of agents changes over time. Records systems need to capture these changes. This contextual information is necessary for understanding records." ISO Technical Specification 23081-1, s. 9.4.2
Value Domain
Enumerated strings of text representing names of institutions.
Datatype Name
String
Constraint
Applicable at record level and file level.
Obligation
Mandatory at record level; mandatory at file level.
Relational Attributes
Encoding Scheme
Titles of Federal Organizations
Linkages
Agent Individual Identifier; Agent Individual Name
Conditions of Application - Record
Format
Text, based on encoding scheme.
Modifiable
Pre Record Declared Locked
Post Record Declared Locked
No
No
Occurrence
Not repeatable
Conditions of Application - File
Format
Text, based on encoding scheme.
Modifiable
No
Occurrence
Not repeatable
Comments and Guidance
a) Explanation of Definition/Usage
This element records the official name of the institution of an agent who performed an action on a record or file. It is one of the elements that constitute a management and event history log.
It is not to be confused with the element Trustee Institution Name which specifies the name of the institution of the steward of the record. Trustee Institution Name is not used within a management and event history log.
This element will be repeated in the log file for each action that is taken, but since only one action can take place at one single point in time, it is deemed as "Not repeatable".
b) Best Practices
Acronyms and symbols should not be used in this element. Instead, the full name of the institution should be used.
In order to ensure standardization of entries, recommended best practice is to select a value from the Titles of Federal Organizations.
It should be noted that the Titles of Federal Organizations, presented published as of March 1998, is currently undergoing a review in order to update its content.
Since this element is used for audit purposes, the value cannot be modified.
If an institution uses a Human Resources Information System such as PeopleSoft this system should be the authoritative source for all agent data; however this data must be reliably maintained over time to be useful. Agent data must be retrievable as a "snapshot" for any given date and time in order to prove in what capacity the agent was acting when performing an action on a record or file. Links to databases that are dynamic in nature and retain only current information about an agent do not satisfy the requirements of a management and event history log for the record or file. Therefore, best practice may dictate that the information about the agent be brought inside the EDRMS and possibly stored within an agent database.
It is up to the institution to determine how to implement the management and event history log. Each time an agent performs an action on a record or file, all information about the agent may be written to the log of the record or file, or alternatively, only one element (e.g. Agent Individual Identifier or Agent Individual Name) may be written to the log of the record or file yet permit linkage to the separate agent database containing other information about the agent.
In order to minimize storage concerns of writing to each record or file all information about the agent, recommended best practice is to maintain a table within the EDRMS that records information about each agent and the elements that relate to them. This table will be maintained as a type of agent database, with new entries made for each change of the agent's information. In this way, a "snapshot" of an agent's status can always be retrieved for evidentiary purposes. This agent database would then be linked to the management and event history log of the record or file through the common element Agent Individual Identifier or Agent Individual Name, i.e. as long as Agent Individual Identifier or Agent Individual Name is written to the management and event history log of the record or file, information about the agent can be retrieved from the agent database.
In the above scenario, when moving records and files out of the institution, the information about the agent must be moved also in order to properly maintain the integrity of the management and event history log of the records and files.
c) Obligation
This element is mandatory for evidentiary purposes. It is important to be able to identify the institution for which an agent works.
d) Default Values/Auto-populate
This element is used as a log entry only and is not part of a record or file profile; therefore, all values for this element will be auto-populated by the EDRMS.
e) Linkages
This element is linked only to Agent Individual Identifier and Agent Individual Name. Through those elements, it is linked to all other agent elements and all event elements in order to constitute a management and event history log.
f) Examples
- "National Defence"
- "Natural Resources Canada"
