A record format containing standard information categories or paragraph names is used for the processing of data for all databases. Depending on the type of archives to which the information refers, certain of the information categories may be omitted. The information categories are explained below. N.B. For the physical retrieval of archives for consultation, the information in the following paragraphs is necessary: DEPOT, SOURCE, VOLUME NO and REFERENCE.

Repository: The archives repository at which the archives concerned are housed. An acronym or abbreviated version is usually given. See Acronyms and names used to identify archival repositories (depots) and contact details.

Source: Archives are kept as entities or sources according to the office that created or received them. Each of these sources has a code that is given in this paragraph. For example, DWB stands for Director of the Weather Bureau. See Source codes for details or the publication List of Computerised Sources, which is available from the National Archives and Records Service, Private Bag X236, Pretoria 0001.

Type: The physical type of the relevant archives is given in this information category. On certain databases the Afrikaans terms are used throughout as a standard to facilitate retrieval. See Types of archives for details.

Volume no and reference: This information enables the physical location of an item to be identified.

System: Where more than one classification system was used by an office historically, the number of the particular classification system is indicated here.

Part no: Where there is more than one file with the same reference number, the number of the part is indicated here.

Description: A synoptic description of the archival unit is given. In many cases it is the title of a file as it was used by the office that created it.

Starting and ending: The terminal dates of an item which spans a period of time.

Remarks: Explanatory details such as cross-references are given here.

Summary: This paragraph is used only in data pertaining to the national registers of non-public records. A synoptic overview is given of the contents of a collection in a National Register of Manuscripts (NAREM) entry, and a listing of individual items in a National Register of Audio-visual Material (NAROM) entry, such as cuts of a gramophone record.

Yes. The major holdings of the National Archives and provincial archives services are records of South African governmental bodies. There are smaller collections of non-public records relating to South African organisations and individuals. The holdings reflected in the registers of non-public records in the custody of participating archival repositories are also largely South African in origin.

Retrieval of records in NAAIRS is effected by the use of search words. As no controlled vocabulary such as that contained in authority lists or thesauri is used in the preparation of the data, the user is free to formulate appropriate search words independently. Usually the names of persons and places are used, as well as subjects. It should be noted however that any word or character string (such as a reference number or date) in a record in NAAIRS may serve as a keyword to effect retrieval.

It is important to emphasise that generally the descriptions of archival items given in NAAIRS, and particularly those relating to correspondence files, are those allocated by the offices which generated the records. In formulating search words, it would therefore be appropriate to attempt to replicate the terminology that would probably have been used in the context of public administration rather than, say, the academic analysis of a matter. As a significant proportion of the records in NAAIRS are in Afrikaans, as are the archives to which they refer, retrieval on the basis of subjects will in some cases not be complete without the addition of search words in Afrikaans.

In NAAIRS upper and lower case letters are regarded being equivalent. It is therefore not necessary to capitalise any search words. Lower case may be used throughout.

It is sufficient to use a single keyword. Where combinations of search words are used for greater precision in retrieval, the search words need to be linked with operators which indicate the relationship between the search words. NAAIRS has been designed to prompt the user and to indicate all the options available. For clarity, explanations of the operators available, and examples of queries are given below.

OPERATORS

a Adjacent b

Records having a and b immediately adjacent, with no words in between, in the order given.

a AND b

Records having a and b anywhere in the record.

a NEAR b

Identical to ADJ except that a and b may occur in either order.

a NOT b

Records which contain a but not b.

a OR b

Records which contain either a or b, or both a and b.

EXAMPLES OF QUERIES

AND
albert and luthuli
rock and paintings

Adjacent
albert Adjacent luthuli
rock Adjacent paintings

OR
moshesh or moshoeshoe or moshweshwe

NOT
mining not gold

NEAR
albert near luthuli