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In this section
Introducing Auckland
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Introducing Auckland
Auckland City Council archivesIntroduction | Search the archives | Family history | About the archival system | Visit our research room | Other useful resources About the archival systemThe archives database was developed to provide researchers with access to Auckland City Council archives’ holdings through web-based finding aids. The database is an implementation of the Australian series system for describing archives.
Explaining the different levels of descriptionThere are three levels (or types of description) in the database. These deal with different aspects of the content or context of the records that are held by Auckland City Council archives. The levels of description are agency, series and record.
The agency entities give you contextual information about how local government in Auckland has been structured and what it did. This will help you discover what records were created and where they can be found. The series and record entities provide information about the content of the records and how they were organised and used. See below for more detailed definitions of each. AgencyAn administrative unit such as a city council, a road board or a local authority trading enterprise (LATE) that undertakes business and creates records in relation to this. Large councils may comprise several distinct agencies such as standing committees and a number of departments. An agency can also be a person. Examples are: Great Barrier Island County Council, Art Gallery Committee, Philips, Philip Aaron SeriesA group of records that were created, or accumulated, by an agency or agencies. The records in a series belong together because they are part of the same filing system or they resulted from the same process or activity. They often have a similar format and informational content. Examples of series are: minute books, aerial photographs, valuation rolls RecordsA record is a discrete item within a series. It provides information and evidence of a transaction. A record can be a single item, such as a document, map, film or sound recording, or it can be a sequence of items, e.g. a file, volume, or photograph album. The individual descriptions are linked together by various relationships. You can use these relationship links in the archives database to move between levels, eg to see what records belonged to a specific agency. There are also links within the levels, e.g. you can see which agency came immediately before or after the agency you are viewing, or you can find out if the agency controlled others. In the database, entries always indicate which level of description they are -
Agency an agency description, Series a series description and Record a record
(item) description. Which level type of search should you choose?The database offers search options that reflect the levels of description: Agency search, Series search and Record search. You can begin your search at any level but there are advantages in starting at a higher level, such as agency, and using the links to series and records in the results screens. The relative merits of searching directly for records or searching in context are described below. NB. Whichever level you start at, there will always be links that can take you to other levels. Searching directly for recordsThe records option is the most direct search to follow. You will immediately get a list of files, images, or documents, etc. that match your search criteria. This search is very broad because it searches across all records in the database. However, you can end up with a large number of results, many of which may be off the topic. You can ensure you get a manageable result by using distinctive or uncommon keywords, or entering more than one search criterion where this option is provided. The limitation to searching at the record level is that any keyword search is based only on the title of the record. If your keyword is not in the title, the record (however relevant) will not be returned. Searching contextAn alternative approach is to search initially for an agency that is relevant to your topic of research. This can give you better results in the end and turn up records that may not readily be found by title. Searching in context allows you to get an overview of local government in Auckland from which you can identify promising lines of enquiry, e.g. you might find a particular committee that dealt with your topic of research and explore their records. Navigating down through the levels of description gives you more ability to
direct your search and ensure the most relevant records are reached in the end.
You have the options to view the contextual information in its brief form or to
view the full description, which contains detailed scope and history information
and a full range of links you can click to see related information. Search helpDescribing the four searchesKeyword search
Agency search
Series search
Record search
For more information about the archival system, please
click here. Explaining the search criteriaKeywordWord or Phrase searches - You can search for records that have a particular word or words in their title or description. Type the word you want to find (committee) or type a phrase (town planning) to find those words in that order. Exact Words - The database will look for matches to exact words unless you use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. To find variations of words, type an asterisk at the end of one or more word stems, e.g. comm* will find community, committee, etc. Exact Phrase - To search for an exact phrase, precede it with an equal sign (=). For example, =sound recordings finds only that complete phrase (does not find just "sound" or just "recordings" or that phrase embedded in other text). AND-OR-NOT searches - Use the symbols & / ! between words or phrases to represent Boolean AND, OR, NOT within one query box. Include a space before and after the symbol. For example: For an AND search, enter & (e.g. newmarket & council) Words joined by & / ! are evaluated in left-to-right order. For example, building & permit / plan finds archival records that contain "building" and "permit", or records that contain "plan". Use parentheses to control evaluation order: for example, building & (permit / plan) finds archival records that contain "building" and "permit" OR "building" and "plan". Proximity searches - Use the proximity operators w# (within) and p# (preceding) to find words near each other (where # is a number). For example, planning p5 committee will find "planning" preceding "committee" by 5 words or fewer. You can also include an asterisk (*) at the end of either word (i.e. plan* p5 committee). However, do not string together phrases (i.e. plan* p5 sub committee). Case and Punctuation - Case in query criteria is usually ignored (a search for
investments committee finds Investments Committee). Punctuation is also
ignored, except for the AND-OR-NOT symbols (& / !) and search symbols
(for example, : = < >). If you do not want these characters to be interpreted as
search symbols, use quotation marks ("Brown Campbell & Co") or replace
the punctuation with a space (Brown Campbell Co). YearsYou can search for records that relate to a period of time by entering a single year (eg 1987) or a range of years. Range searchesA range consists of two values, low and high, separated by a colon. Include spaces around the colon. For example 1952 : 1965 retrieves dates from 1952 through 1965 (inclusive). "Less than" or "Greater than" searchesYou can do "less than" or "greater than" searches using the < and > symbols. Use < to find a date less than the value entered (e.g. < 1947 finds dates before 1947) Use > to find a date greater than the value entered (e.g. > 1897 finds dates after 1897) The equal sign (=) can be combined with the < and > symbols in order to include the entered value. Use <= to find dates less than or equal to the value entered (e.g. <= 1950 finds dates including or before 1950) Use >= to find dates greater than or equal to the value entered (e.g. >=1930 finds dates including or after 1930). AND-OR-NOT searchesYou can use the symbols & / ! between dates to do AND-OR-NOT searches. For example, 1973 / 1974 finds all dates in 1973 or 1974. NB: Do not use a forward slash to separate date elements unless you
surround the date with quotation marks (for example, "12/31/1974"). Format / Material DescriptionRecords come in different formats. There are five general formats that you can search for:
These formats can be selected
from the material description list or entered straight
into the format / material description query box. AgencyIn the series search, you can browse and then choose an agency from the agency name list or the agency code list. In most cases, you would do this so you only got results for series created by that particular agency. In the record search, you can browse and then choose an agency from the agency name list or the agency code list. In most cases, you would do this so you only got results for records created by that particular agency. Each agency is registered by Auckland City Council archives and given a unique 3-letter code, e.g. ELB for Ellerslie Borough Council, MEB for Mount Eden Borough Council. There are three exceptions
SeriesIn the series search, you can browse and then choose a series by name from the title list or the series number list. You can select multiple series from the lists. In most cases, you would do this so you only retrieved information on that particular series. In the record search, you can browse and then choose a series by name from the part of list or the series number list. In most cases, you would do this so you only got results for records belonging to that particular series. Each series is registered by
Auckland City Council archives and given a unique code. The code consists of the agency code of
the agency that created or had last custody of the series, i.e. the agency the
series was "part of", and a three-digit number e.g. MEB 001. Record NumberIn the record search, you can browse and then choose a record number from the record number list. Because records are often generated within records
management programs, records are assigned numbers or references according to a
classification or some other system of arrangement. Further helpFurther information on searching is available by clicking
the Help icon This will direct you to some general search tips and advice on how to use the Browse button.
Updated September 2007 |
displayed
on every search screen.