Archway is a workflow and documentation system developed by Archives New Zealand to manage:

• Information about government records;
• Information about the context in which they were created; and
• The core archival business processes (appraisal, transfer and description) that generate this information.

Archway was developed in the first instance to provide researchers with access to information about Archives New Zealand’s holdings through web-based finding aids. The contextual data about the structure and functions of government and how they interacted over time is also designed to support other activities undertaken by Archives New Zealand, e.g. appraisal, monitoring and standard setting. Potentially, the data will support inter-dependencies between Archives New Zealand and agency systems in the creation and management of records.

Archway is an implementation of the Australian Series System for describing archives in context. As such, it separately documents seven core entities and the key relationships (of control and succession) that exist between them. These are represented in the diagram below. Archives New Zealand is also indebted to Chris Hurley and his work on codifying attributes of the entities and rules for describing them¹.

Further information about the Australian Series System can be found on the website of the Australian Society of Archivists, Committee on Descriptive Standards http://www.archivists.org.au/cds/

For more information about the Archway system and Archives New Zealand’s descriptive standards contact the Context Control Unit at Archives New Zealand,
PO Box 12-050, Wellington, New Zealand.
Phone: (64-4) 499 5595    Fax: (64-4) 495 6210
E-mail: wellington@archives.govt.nz

¹Hurley’s Common Practice Rules HCPR-DEA-2001-01 http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/publications/hcprdea200101.htm

top