Records in Contexts
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Records in Contexts, or RiC, is a conceptual model and ontology for the archival description of records, designed by the Expert Group on Archival Description (EGAD) established by the International Council on Archives (ICA). The EGAD initially began work on the standard between 2012 and 2016, with a conceptual model (RiC-CM) and an ontology (RiC-O) released for comment during 2016.[1] Version 0.2 was released in 2021, now featuring an independent introduction to archival description (RiC-IAD) and updates to the original RiC-CM and RiC-O.[2] A fourth part of the standard covering Application Guidelines (RiC-AG) is also expected, prior to a completed RiC version 1.0 being released as an official ICA recommendation.
Content
[edit]The Conceptual Model aims to bring together the council's current descriptive standards, namely the General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)), International Standard Archival Authority Records — Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (ISAAR(CPF)), International Standard Description of Functions (ISDF), and International Standard Description of Institutions with Archival Holdings (ISDIAH).[3] RiC also aims to be better suited to the management of electronic records than previous standards, whilst still supporting traditional analogue materials.[4] It defines the primary descriptive entities of the model, and how these interrelate within archival description. RiC also aims to modernise the aging current standards, by enabling archival description to better capture the complex relationships records have with each other, and with their creators, holders, and subjects. These groups, individuals, and organisations are referred to as "agents" in RiC. Through these relationships, RiC aims to provide a richer descriptive context than the hierarchical structure of ISAD(G).[5]
Response
[edit]Version 0.1 of the conceptual model was published for comment in 2016. Among the responses, some have shown confusion as to how it should be applied in practice. A consultation meeting of the Archives and Records Association's Archives and Technology group expressed uncertainty over how the conceptual model should be interpreted by the profession, and how they would engage with and benefit from it in the future.[6]
In their response, the InterPARES Trust state that a more inclusive development process should have been used given the potentially international application of the model, referring especially to the under-representation of Africa and Asia (acknowledged by EGAD in their introduction to the RiC-CM). Their response also questions the integration of the entire suite of current ICA descriptive standards without first gauging the extent to which these are currently implemented globally. [7]
OWL Ontology
[edit]The EGAD has published an OWL ontology called RiC-O to represent RiC-CM in version 0.1 in December 2019.[8] An ontology proposal based on the draft of the conceptual model was made available already in 2017.[9]
See also
[edit]- ISAD(G)
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Encoded Archival Description
- Manual of Archival Description
- International Standard Archival Authority Record
- Archival processing
- Finding aid
References
[edit]- ^ Daniel Pitti; Bill Stockting; Florence Clavaud (8 September 2016). "Presentation of the standard "Records in Context"". P138 Records in Contexts (RiC): a standard for archival description developed by the ICA Experts Group on Archival Description. International Council on Archives, Paris. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ^ "Resource of the Month: Introducing Records in Contexts: The New ICA Standard for Describing Records". International Council on Archives. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
- ^ "Records in Contexts: A conceptual model for archival description" (PDF). Consultation Draft v0.1. Experts Group On Archival Description, International Council on Archives. September 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ^ Cooper, Carl, Researchers, practitioners and their use of the archived web. IIPC Web Archiving Conference 15th June 2017. (2017) <https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2017/06/20/researcherspractitioners-and-their-use-of-the-archived-web-iipc-web-archiving-conference-15th-june-2017/> [accessed 3 August 2017].
- ^ Bogdan Florin Popovici, director Romanian National Archives (2016). "Records In Contexts; Towards A New Level In Archival Description?" (PDF). Pokrajinski arhiv Maribor. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ^ Jenny Bunn (19 December 2016). "Results of the ARA SAT consultation on Records in Contexts". Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ^ Luciana Duranti (compiler) (2016). "Comments on "Records in Context"" (PDF). InterPARES Trust. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ [1], 2019-12-12.
- ^ Llanes-Padrón, D., Pastor-Sánchez, J.A. (2017). Records in contexts: the road of archives to semantic interoperability. Program, Vol. 51 Issue: 4, pp.387-405 <https://doi.org/10.1108/PROG-03-2017-0021> <http://eprints.rclis.org/31993/1/record-in-context-ontology-paper-revised.pdf> [accessed 23 November 2017].