Queensland State Archives' record system

Research Guide to Queensland State Archives record systems.

The record systems at Queensland State Archives (QSA) follow two archival principles: the principles of provenance and original order. The term ‘provenance’ refers to the creator and/or custodian of the records. The term ‘original order’ refers to the order in which records were created or maintained by the public servants who originally used them. The finding aids to these records are arranged according to the title of the agency directly responsible for their creation and/or collection, and the records are kept in their original order. To find a particular record, generally the search strategy is: • identify the government agency which created, kept or is responsible for the record • identify the relevant series created or kept by that agency (a series consists of records grouped by subject or function) • identify the relevant item (retrieval is at item level).