Data Source Administrator role
Data Source Administrator responsibilities
Liaison and communication
A Data Source Administrator is responsible for liaison between an organisation and ANDS in relation to the organisation's metadata feed. Liaison responsibilities include:
- Contacting their ANDS Client Liaison Officer if there are any concerns or queries about RIF-CS, metadata feeds, the ANDS Collections Registry or Research Data Australia.
- Keeping Data Source Administrator contact information up to date in the Data Source Account
The person acting in this role may also be responsible for liaising with ANDS in relation to funded projects, and should provide up-to-date contact information to their ANDS contact person.
Keeping informed:
Data Source Administrators should keep themselves informed about potential changes to the RIF-CS Schema and the implications for their institution using the communication channels provided to ANDS Partners.
Data Source profile management and harvester configuration
The Data Source Administrator is responsible for maintaining the administrative information held in the Data Source Account about the OAI-PMH Data Provider at their institution, and may also oversee the technical processes of providing metadata to the ANDS Collections Registry.
A person acting in the role of Data Source Administrator can be responsible for more than one Data Source.
Managing and maintaining the Data Source includes:
- ensuring the Data Source profile, including harvester configuration, in the ANDS Collections Registry is correct
- scheduling harvests for a Data Source
- testing the harvest process as required
- monitoring to ensure harvests have not failed.
More information: ORCA-Registry v2.4.1 Documentation particularly the part relating to Administration (pages 14 to 26).
Backups of development metadata:
During the development phase of ANDS funded projects, institutions may create records in ANDS Systems. Records with statuses other than Approved and Published are not backed up by ANDS. The Data Source Administrator should ensure that backup copies of these records are held within their institution.
Skill set for a Data Source Administrator
A Data Source Administrator requires the following skill set:
- Ability to understand and implement institutional polices affecting data, such as copyright, licensing, ethics and privacy, contractual requirements, security and access policies, recordkeeping policies on retention, and preservation.
- Technical appreciation of system changes that might require changes to the Data Source attributes.
- Basic IT competency, including the ability to access the Internet and to use an online application.
- Authority to oversee and administer the data feed to ANDS on behalf of the data owner.
- An understanding of the type of metadata feed (e.g. OAI-PMH) from their institution to the ANDS Collections Registry, and its configuration. Data Source Administrators need to know about any changes affecting the harvest, such as the harvest point being moved or any technical changes made to the harvest point setup.
- An understanding of the ANDS RIF-CS schema.
A non-technical person is suitable for the role as long as the organisation has good communications mechanisms, and provides adequate technical support.
The Data Source Administrator needs formal legal authority to share metadata with ANDS. This is likely to derive from an institutional data management policy, supported by formal agreement with depositors.
| Date | Change history |
| 26 October 2010 | First web publication |
| 29 Sept 2011 | Minor edits to backup advice and restructure of page to highlight communication role |
Please send any feedback on this page to guides@ands.org.au
