Attribute

Value

Identifying Attributes

Name

eventDateTime

Label

Event Date/Time

Defined by

Government of Canada Records Management Metadata Standard - eventDateTime

Element URI

[To be actioned by Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat before publication]

Definitional Attributes

Definition

The date and time of the action taken on a record or file.

Purpose

To date/timestamp actions on records or files as they are managed throughout their life cycle.

To date/timestamp when records or files are accessed and used.

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,
5) identify when such access took place, and
6) provide evidence of the transactions that have been undertaken on the record." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 9.3

"Any authorized annotation, addition or deletion to a record should be explicitly indicated and traceable." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 7.2.4

"Tracking of the movement and use of records within a records system is required to:
a) identify outstanding action required,
b) enable retrieval of a record,
c) prevent loss of records,
d) monitor usage for systems maintenance and security, and maintain an auditable trail of records transitions (i.e. capture or registration, classification, indexing, storage, access and use, migration and disposition), and
e) maintain capacity to identify the operational origins of individual records where systems have been amalgamated or migrated." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 9.8.1

"Records systems should contain complete and accurate representations of all transactions that occur in relation to a particular record…they may be recorded as audit trails which should be kept at least as long as the document to which they relate is retained." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 8.3.2

"An authentic record is one that can be proven … c) to have been created or sent at the time purported." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 7.2.2

"[Systems] should provide and maintain audit trails or other methods to demonstrate that records were effectively protected from unauthorized use, alteration or destruction." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 8.3.6

"Systems should provide audit trails or other methods to track completed disposition actions." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 8.3.7

"The movement of records should be documented to ensure that items can always be located when required... The system should track the issue, transfer between persons, and return of records to their 'home' location or storage, as well as their disposition or transfer to any other authorized external organization including an archives authority" ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 9.8.3

"A record of disposition actions, once they have been carried out, should be maintained." ISO International Standard 15489-1, s. 9.10

"All records management processes performed upon a record, or on a group or aggregation of records, should be documented. In order to preserve records and guarantee their authenticity, reliability, usability and integrity over time, it is necessary to create metadata that facilitates the triggering or documentation of these records management processes.  These metadata should include information about the management processes that have been or will be applied to each record…. Metadata about records management processes can be applied throughout the record's existence…. Additionally, any changes in the record content, context and structure caused by management activities should be documented.

Business processes that access records should also be documented in the metadata throughout the record's life. Such business processes include associating records with actions, action triggers and other records.

All metadata about the record and those accruing in its management and use also form a record: the metadata record that also has to be managed. It is essential to keep this metadata record at least for as long as the record exists.  In the case of disposition of records, either by transfer of custody or ownership, or by destruction, some metadata about them may still be needed to account for their existence, management and disposition." ISO Technical Specification 23081-1, s. 5.3.2

Value Domain

A range of dates expressed using the Gregorian calendar and times.

Datatype Name

DateTime

Constraint

Applicable at record level and file level.

Obligation

Mandatory at record level; mandatory at file level.

Relational Attributes

Encoding Scheme

ISO International Standard 8601 [W3CDTF] as adopted by TBITS 39: Treasury Board Information Management Standard, Part 1: Government On-Line Metadata Standard

References

www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/
datesandtime.html

References

www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime

References

www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/its-nit/standards/tbits39/crit391_e.asp

Linkages

Agent Individual Identifier; Agent Individual Name; Event Description; Event Type

Conditions of Application - Record

Format

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss

Modifiable

Occurrence

Not repeatable

Conditions of Application - File

Format

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss

Modifiable

No

Occurrence

Not repeatable