What's New

What's New

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) presents talk on metadata for electronic government records

Join us for the fourth session of the seminar series, New Directions in Description, to hear Michel Lévesque, an information management specialist with the government of Quebec, speak on metadata for electronic government records:

Can we do without metadata to manage electronic government records?

The management of traditional paper records required the use of metadata, although it was not often referred to as such. In a world with both paper and electronic records, governments and universities are creating an impressive amount of such metadata. Where does this leave us?

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the metadata that could be used for describing records at the time of creation based on the functional categories of context of creation, classification, indexing and management. This metadata can also be used to describe records at the file level.

This new way of handling documents raises many questions. Is this metadata mandatory? What is the best way to approach this new method? Who will do the work? This talk will raise these issues and encourage an open discussion.

Michel Lévesque is Head of the Document Management Section for the Quebec Government's Director General of Elections. Mr. Lévesque has a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from the Université de Montréal, where he is currently a lecturer for the Archival Certificate Program and instructs on archival appraisal. He is especially interested in the management of electronic documents, metadata and the impact of legislation on archival science.

The presentation will be in French, with simultaneous translation, and will last approximately 75 minutes. Questions will be taken in both languages after the presentation. This talk will be of interest to those in the archival, records management, information management and library communities.

When: Monday, April 4, 2005, 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Where: Library and Archives Canada, Auditorium, 395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission is free