Australian Series System
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
The Australian Series System is an archival control or metadata system, used primarily to describe records in the custody of archival institutions. It was developed at the Australian Archives and forms the basis for the Australian Society of Archivists' committee on descriptive standards guide ″Describing archives in context″.{{Citation | author1=Clive Smith | title=The Australian Series System | publication-date=1995 | publisher=Association of Canadian Archivists | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/5569798 | access-date=30 September 2016 }}{{cite journal|last=Hurley|first=Chris|title=The Australian ('Series') System: An Exposition|year=1994|url=http://infotech.monash.edu/research/groups/rcrg/publications/chtrc1.html|access-date=1 March 2014|journal=|archive-date=4 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304182831/http://infotech.monash.edu/research/groups/rcrg/publications/chtrc1.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author= Australian Society of Archvists Committee on descriptive standards|title=Describing archives in context: a guide to Australasian practice|year=2004}}
In 1966, Peter Scott of the Commonwealth Archives Office (predecessor to the National Archives of Australia) developed the system (in practice, referred to as the Commonwealth Records Series System by the National Archives){{Cite web|url=http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/managing-collection/organising-national-archives-holdings/index.aspx|title=Organising our holdings|website=www.naa.gov.au|language=en-AU|access-date=2018-10-17|archive-date=5 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705051037/http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/managing-collection/organising-national-archives-holdings/index.aspx|url-status=dead}} in his paper "The Record Group Concept: A Case for Abandonment".{{Cite journal|last=Scott|first=Peter|date=October 1966|title=The Record Group Concept: A Case for Abandonment|journal=The American Archivist|volume=29|issue=4|pages=493–504|jstor=40290645|doi=10.17723/aarc.29.4.y886054240174401}} This approach represented a change in traditional archival theories of provenance that groups records by the more flexible record series rather than the record group which required all records to be filed under only one creating agency (business, government agency, individual, etc.).
The new system recognises that creating agencies change names, split and dissolve over time and provides a flexible framework to arrange their records across the different agencies which all share the same organizational content. These record series are relational in that they are linked to their historical creating agencies in their various forms to reflect changes in organizational structure over time.{{Cite journal|last=Cook|first=Terry|date=Spring 1997|title=What is Past is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift|journal=Archivaria|volume=43|pages=17–63}}
The system is noted for its separation of data about record-keeping and context,{{Citation | author1=Hurley, Chris | title=What, if anything, is the Australian "Series" System? | publication-date=2008 | publisher=Chris Hurley | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/193428312 | access-date=30 September 2016 }} by structuring an archive's organisation through individually describing separate "Context entities" for:
- Records (the bunch of documents);
- Agents (the persons or organisations that create and manage the Records); and/or,
- Functional Provenance (the business the Agents do).
In this the traditional Respect des fonds and original order are both incorporated and extended, particularly useful where an original function is maintained by differing agents through time.{{cite book | author= Bettington, Jackie et al., eds. | title=Keeping Archives 3rd Edition | publication-date=2008 | publisher= Australian Society of Archivists Inc. }}