Finding records

There are a few important points you should know before you start to search for records.

• Archives are not organised by subject. They are arranged by the government agencies or individuals who created them.
• There is no single subject index or catalogue that lists every item in the collection and thus there is no one place to start that suits all types of research. The information you are seeking and the time you have available will determine where you should start.
• Use our finding aids. The Archives creates and maintains databases, guides and other reference tools to help you identify relevant agencies and the records they created. Some of these finding aids provide a subject approach to access and using them can speed up your search considerably.

To fully understand a record it is often helpful to know certain things about it in addition to its contents. For example:

• who created the record
• when was it created
• what other records exist that deal with the same general subject or issue

This information provides the context of the record, which helps you to interpret what the record is really about, determine its relevance, and decide how accurate or complete it might be.

The National Archives of Australia documents this contextual information for each record in the collection using the Commonwealth Record Series (CRS) System. Under the CRS System there are three important and related entities: agencies, series and items.

A single agency may have created or accumulated many series, and a series may consist of thousands of individual items, or as few as one. Series may also be created by persons, ie depositors of personal record collections, such as ministers or prime ministers.

The basic unit of archival arrangement is the series. When a series is registered, the following details are added to RecordSearch:

• the series number and series title
• a description of the creating agency and its predecessors (these are given a CA or Commonwealth Agency number)
• the subject matter of the series
• its date range
• the format of the individual items making up the series
• their quantity (expressed in shelf metres)
• where they are held (location) and
• details of previous, subsequent and related series.

The following is an example of the most basic descriptive information maintained by the Archives at each level of the CRS System hierarchy.

1 = the CA or Commonwealth Agency number
2 = the CRS or series number
3 = the item number

You will need the series number and item number to request the issue of records to the reading room and to order copies. The series number and item number are the equivalent of a book's call number in a library.

The agency and series information provides the intellectual framework and context for the record. The item constitutes the primary research material – the actual record issued to you in the reading room.

You can start your search at any one of the three levels outlined above and this will determine the finding aids you use. 
 
The main types of finding aids are RecordSearch and PhotoSearch, research guides, fact sheets and item lists. In addition, our web pages provide extensive information about our holdings related to topics such as Cabinet records, Indigenous Australians, defence, and Australia's prime ministers. There are also the original indexes used by the agencies which created the records, called control records. Sometimes your search will need to include a combination of each. They all have advantages and limitations.

It will usually be your ultimate goal to identify items, but because there is no single subject index to the collection you may need to start your search at the top of the hierarchy to identify the agency that created the records, then to identify which of the series created by that agency would be most likely to contain the records, and finally to identify the individual items within the series.

To illustrate this, if you were searching for information about seal sightings on Heard Island it would make your task easier if you had some idea which department or agency might have produced such records. By looking up that agency, you could then identify which of the series of records created by that agency are most relevant (for example, you would ignore series dealing with other Antarctic stations and would look specifically for those concerning Heard Island). Having identified the series most likely to be relevant, you would then use RecordSearch or would refer to the paper-based item lists for that series to identify relevant items.

Four search hints are outlined below. They are listed from the most straightforward to the more complex.

SEARCH HINT 1 – Check for a guide or fact sheet

Find out whether a written research guide or fact sheet is available on the topic. You can browse research guides and fact sheets online. The Archives publishes these on subjects that most frequently attract research inquiries. If there is one on your topic it will identify relevant records. Fact sheets are available at no charge. Guides to records can be used in the reading room or on our website at no charge, and copies may be purchased through the bookshop.

SEARCH HINT 2 – Search for items in RecordSearch and PhotoSearch

Online searching can be a way of quickly finding the records you want. You can search RecordSearch by words in the item title, by item number or by series number, and you can specify a range of other criteria including the location of the records, their date range and additional words in their titles. Because the database includes records held by the Archives in every state and territory, as well as those held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the location of each item is shown.

If you are in a reading room in the state or territory that corresponds to the location of the item, in most cases you can order the item from the database and have it issued to that reading room. The following fact sheets have more information on using RecordSearch.

• Fact Sheet 13 – RecordSearch – an overview
• Fact Sheet 14 – Keyword searching in RecordSearch

You can search PhotoSearch by words in captions, image numbers or series numbers. You can also browse by subject headings. Some images can be viewed online. See Fact Sheet 19 – PhotoSearch.

SEARCH HINT 3 – Check item lists

Item lists are a useful finding aid. For any given series there is usually a list of every item in the Archives custody belonging to that series. hese lists are kept in reading rooms in the office where the records are held, and once you have identified the series number you can then go to the shelves and browse the lists for that series. The lists are shelved numerically by series number. Item lists vary in the information they contain.

If you identify an item on the list that you wish to see, first check RecordSearch to see if it is listed on the database. If it is and the access decision says open or open with exception, you can order the item for viewing. If the item is not on the database or has a different access decision you will need to complete an Application for Access form and give this to the reference officer in the reading room.

SEARCH HINT 4 – Search RecordSearch for series or agency information

As well as item information, RecordSearch contains series level descriptions of all the records in the collection and detailed information about the agencies which created them. Use RecordSearch to do this if you have an agency or series number, or if you are undertaking more wide-ranging and systematic research.