Archives New Zealand || Citations and reuse

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If you intend to publish or publicly exhibit your work, you must first request permission to publish from us as most of the material that we hold is subject to Crown Copyright. In cases where we have already published archival material online, it is instead covered by a Creative Commons license, and you are welcome to use it without seeking permission. We define a ‘publication’ as anything made publicly available in the following formats:

book
periodical/magazine
brochure/leaflet
exhibition captions
poster
film, tv, video
art work
electronic or digital format
online use such as websites
other formats

How do I cite an archival record?
We don’t prescribe a particular style of citation. The choice of format and style of citation is up to the researcher. However, there are reference details that should be included in any citation no matter the format. Citations of our records should include the following information:
- agency code
- series number and/or the accession number
- record number
- item ID or ‘R’ number
- the full name and location of our archive for example Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Christchurch
How do I read a record listing?

Record listings in Archway may seem complex if you're not familiar with the terms we use to describe our records. We hope that the following explanations will help you to unlock more of the useful information that our listings contain and help you to cite our records correctly.

Title – the title that is physically on the record. Sometimes extra description is given in brackets to make finding the record easier.

Years – the years that the contents of the record were started and finished. If this information is not known the record is undated.

Item ID – also known as the ‘R’ number. You can use this number to search for a record without needing the full archives reference.

Agency – The government agency that transferred the records to us. This is represented by a four-letter code.

Series - A group of records that are related to each other, such as probates, coroner’s inquests, or military personnel files. This is represented by a short numerical code.

Accession - A group of records that were transferred to our care at the same time. This is represented by a numbered code beginning with the letters W, A, D, or CH, depending on which of our archives the record is held in.

Record number – the number given to a record by the government agency that transferred it to us. Often records are numbered according to a classification scheme, in which case the numbers will represent a subject or function. For example, in the record number 3/2/1 an agency may have used the number 3 to represent ‘human resources’ and the number 2 to represent ‘recruitment’.

Record type – The physical format of the record, such as a text document, art work, or photograph.
Footnote citations

A footnote citation for this record would appear in this format:

AATJ 6091 W5098 6050-1 R17313148
Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington
Bibliography
In a bibliography, the agency name can be used in place of the author, and the series name and number can be used as the title.

A bibliographic reference can use this format:
- the agency name
- the series title and number or the accession name and number if there is no series recorded
- the full name and location of our archive for example Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Christchurch
A bibliography reference for this record would use this format:

Ministry of Energy, Energy Main Filing System, Series 6091
Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington
My research is not going to be published. Do I still need to cite my references?

This is up to you. Best practice is that the full archives references should be used in any piece of research.

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