In June 2021 the National Archives temporarily decommissioned the machine readable version of AGIFT. We are working on a new platform which will enable the National Archives to better maintain, review and develop AGIFT. The Australian Research Data Commons has kindly agreed to host a version of AGIFT on their platform.
A functions thesaurus is a controlled alphabetic list of terms presented as a hierarchy.
A functions thesaurus:
- covers terminology related to Australian Government agencies’ unique or core business functions and activities
- can provide classification to 3 or 4 levels, allowing for comprehensive business information classification
There are 2 functions thesauri available to Australian Government agencies:
- Keyword AAA
- Australian Governments' Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT)
Keyword AAA thesaurus
The State Records Authority of NSW created Keyword AAA as a general terms thesaurus. It includes terms for functions and activities common to many organisations.
Most of the terms for common administrative functions in AFDA Express Version 2 are based on the Keyword AAA classification scheme.
Australian Governments' Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT)
Australian Governments' Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT) is a classification tool used to help with the discovery of resources.
AGIFT describes the high-level business functions carried out across Commonwealth, state and local governments in Australia.
AGIFT contributes to the discovery of online government information and services by:
- providing standard terms for government agencies to use in the 'Function' element of the AGLS metadata element set
- helping users search government entry points when they are not sure about which terms to use or which level of government is responsible for the information or service they require
- providing a framework for government agencies to develop a more detailed agency-based functional thesaurus for their own classification needs
