Archives In Brief 52 - Exploring Archives Investigator
Archives Investigator is the online archives information and access system which was developed jointly by State Records and the Council of the City of Sydney.
Content and context | Help information | Searching and browsing | Search Results | Hyperlinks between entities | Links to digitised images and bridging aids | Access
This web-based system provides online access to the 'catalogue' databases of the NSW State archives and the archives of the City of Sydney. At this stage, each institution's version provides access only to its own database.
Archives Investigator [1] helps you find archives relevant to your research, through:
- a choice of flexible search tools, from simple to sophisticated, and
- a web of links for point-and-click navigation and browsing.
While a wealth of information is already available, State Records holds more than 15 000 series and millions of individual items and only a small proportion have so far been listed in Archives Investigator.
It will be added to continuously as new material is received.
[1] The name Archives Investigator refers to HMS Investigator in which Matthew Flinders completed the first circumnavigation of Australia, 1801-03, and mapped much of the coast for the first time.
Content and context
Archives can be difficult, and sometimes impossible, to understand without information about the context in which they came into being.
Archives Investigator links the archives to their context, with in-depth information about:
- the government agencies and individual persons that created them
- the functions and activities of government that they document.
Functions and activities provide 'functional context' for the archives, to complement the traditional approach based on the administrative structures of government, centred on agencies.
The following graphic shows how functions and activities relate to the other entities in the underlying data model.
Help information
On-screen Help is available.
Blue information dots provide information about Archives Investigator's features. Detailed information about the system can be found on Archives Investigator's introduction page.
Searching and browsing
Archives Investigator offers three search options — simple, advanced and structured.
Simple Search
A Simple Search query searches the titles and descriptions of all entities across the whole database, based on a word or phrase. It provides 'quick hits' for first time users and a quick way for more experienced users to 'get into' a topic that can then be explored using other tools. This type of search is very useful for a specific research topic.
Advanced search
An Advanced Search involves selecting one of the entities shown in the graphic for searching.
A number of options for how to search the selected entity are then available. It could, for example, be used to identify all record series linked to a particular activity or function, during a specific time period.
The graphic shows the range of criteria available on the Advanced Search page for record series. The Function and Activity boxes are pull-down menus.
Structured Search
A Structured Search is intended to present the archives in the fullest possible functional or administrative context. This strategy is useful if you do not know which activities, agencies or person would have generated the kinds of records that you are looking for.
The structured search option provides a selection of types of high-level context as a starting point. Selecting, say, one of the fourteen broad government functions produces a list of all the activities comprising that function. From that list, one or more activities can be selected to provide a list of the record series that document it or them.
The following graphic shows an example of a search starting with functions and the options available for taking the search to the next level in the hierarchy.
Search Results
Search results from Archives Investigator reflect State Records' use of the 'series system' for describing and managing archives.
Search results can be sorted by series number, entity, title or date.
Hyperlinks between entities
Archives Investigator provides a myriad of links from each of its 'Results', 'Details' and 'List' pages. You can navigate through these links to follow leads, broaden your search or just do a little browsing.
Links to digitised images and bridging aids
Archives Investigator makes the archives themselves more accessible, with digitised images of a small but growing number of individual documents and photographs.
Archives Investigator also links series descriptions to 'bridging aids' (other lists, indexes and finding aids relevant to a series), where they are available on-line.
Access
Access direstion information is being integrated into Archives Investigator and is shown on the Item Detail page.
Set sail with Archives Investigator and explore the archives!
© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority, 2003.
This work may be freely reproduced and distributed for most purposes, however some restrictions apply. See our copyright notice or contact us.
