Towards Archive 2.0: issues in archival systems interoperability

Abstract

Despite recent developments in archival systems, standards and practice, the delivery of web-based archival services continues to present significant barriers to access by members of the community at large. One cause of this is the lack of web-based archival systems interoperability that would otherwise facilitate discovery of, and access to, records by a broad constituency. Instead, monolithic archival control systems continue to position archives as jurisdictional resources that privilege a research-oriented audience. This paper describes a research project that explored the issues surrounding the development of web-based services for interoperability of archival control systems conformant with the Australian Series System. The study identified a number of significant interoperability challenges for archival systems and provided further evidence that requirements for interoperability must be ‘designed in’ and cannot be retrofitted with reliability or ease. It also identified areas in which conceptual and representational recordkeeping and archival standards could be improved. Current recordkeeping and archival standards appear to be insufficiently prescriptive to ensure interoperability, and do not model all of the required elements to facilitate discovery and access by the members of the wider community. From an organisational perspective, the study found structural barriers to progressing interoperability initiatives for community access.