The Australian Government Records Interoperability Framework (AGRIF) ontology

An AGIFT Function is a Function that classifies a Record according to the Australian Governments' Interactive Functions Thesaurus.

An Access Activity is an Activity where a Record is accessed by an Agent over a period of time.

Access Control is the selective restriction of access to a Record or Artefact.

An Access Trigger is a Trigger that can be initiated when a Record is accessed.

An Activity is something that occurs over a period of time on a Record.

An Administrator is a Role that has overall responsibility for the administration and functions of an Information System, but not necessarily for the information stored within.

An Agent is a corporate entity, organisational element or system, or individual responsible for the performance of some Activity or Event, including those on Records.

An Artefact is an object that is made by a Person and that is to be preserved.

An Artefact Change Event is an Event that results in a new version of an Artefact.

An Artefact Control Event is an Event that requires a particular level of access to an Artefact.

An Artefact Publish Event is an Event that gives indiscriminate access to an Artefact to a set of Agents.

An Artefact Send Event is an Event that results in a new version or a set of new versions of an Artefact at a target Agent or a set of target Agents.

An Artefact Share Event is an Event that gives access to an Artefact to an Agent or a defined set of Agents.

An Association is a qualified assignment of responsibility to an Agent in an Activity or Event, indicating that the Agent had a Role in the Activity.

A Business Owner is the Role that has the managerial control of a Function.

A Classifier is a machine-generated and applied category that a set of Records belong to.

A Collection is an aggregation of Artefact items.

A Control is a security or access measure that safeguards or restricts access to an asset.

A Controlled Vocabulary is an Intellectual Control System that provides a way to organize Records that facilitates a later discovery of a Record.

A Coverage denotes the jurisdictional applicability, or the temporal and/or spatial extent to which a Record is observed.

A Record Creation Event is an Event that results in the creation of a Record.

A Creator is the Agent that has created a Record or Artefact.

A Decision Status is a Status that indicates the approval or disapproval of a Decision Event.

A Digital Artefact is an Artefact that is of a digital nature and stored in an Information System.

A Digital Holding Space is a space that is used or reserved for the storage of a Digital Artefact on a storage medium or virtual storage space.

The Digital Preservation Policy defines the process of active management by which the National Archives ensures that a digital object will be accessible in the future.

A Disposal Class is a Policy that defines the sentencing requirements of an item.

An Event denotes an instantaneous transition in the world.

A Form Factor defines and prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications of a Physical Artefact that is stored.

A Function is a process that is performed routinely to carry out a part of the mandate of an Australian Government Agency.

A Holding Space is a space that is used or reserved for the storage of an Artefact.

An Information Management Policy is a Policy that helps to align information management practices to fulfill the requirements of an information governance framework. An Information Management Policy provides direction and guidance to staff for creating, capturing and managing information to satisfy business, legal and stakeholder requirements, and assigns responsibilities across the agency.

An Information System is an organized system for the collection, organization, storage and communication of information, typically Digital Artefacts or Records.

An Intellectual Control System is a System that enables Agents to locate and manage information.

A Jurisdictional Coverage denotes the jurisdictional applicability of the Record.

A Logical Collection is an aggregation of Artefact items that are stored within one physical file.

A Maintain Activity is an Activity to maintain a Record over a period of time due to a BusinessFunction or Policy.

A Manifest describes the files involved in the transfer of a Record from an Agency to the National Archives, including details such as the filesize, the destination hierarchy and the file's metadata.

The Minimum Metadata Set Policy is a Policy that has been developed by the National Archives of Australia to identify metadata properties essential for agency management of information as well as those needed for records which will be transferred to the Archives. It supports the Digital Continuity 2020 principles of interoperable systems and processes and is a practical application of the Australian Government Recordkeeping Metadata Standard 2.2 (AGRkMS) to support metadata implementation and information use in agencies.

An Organisation is a type of Agent that denotes a social or legal institution such as a government agency, a corporation, society, etc.

An Organisational Unit is a division of labour typically organised around a business function that form part of the Organisation.

A Permission denotes the Security Clearance of an Agent that determines its access and use rights.

A Person is an Agent that denotes a human.

A Physical Artefact is an Artefact that is of physical nature.

                      An example of a Phyiscal Artefact in the context of record keeping is information printed or written on paper.
                    

A Physical Collection is an aggregation of Artefact items that are stored in separate physical files.

A Physical Holding Space is a Spatial Location that is used or reserved for the storage of a Physical Artefact.

A Policy is a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes.

A Preservation Quality describes a Quality of an Artefact that supports or threatens the long term preservation of the information that is to be preserved.

A Quality is an attribute that is intrinsically associated with an entity.

A Record is information in any format created, received and maintained as evidence by an Organisation or Person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business. A Record may comprise a Digital or Physical Artefact.

An Record Audit Event is the systematic examination of a Record to ascertain how and where the Record is stored, who created it, or manages it, who uses it and how much longer the Record is required to be maintained.

A Record Control Event is an Event that requires a particular level of access to the Record.

A Record Decision Event changes the Decision Status on the Control of a Record.

A Record Destruction Event is a Disposal Event that results in the regular authorised permanent desctruction of a Record that is no longer required for business purposes.

A Record Disposal Event is an Event that results in the regular authorised destruction or change of custody of a Record that is no longer required for business purposes.

A Record Freeze Event is a Disposal Event that leads to a records disposal freeze or retention notice in support of compliance requirements or an identified need to suspend the Archives' records destruction permissions.

A Record Replacement Event is an Event that results in the replacement of a Record with a new version. Edits to a Record constitute a Replace Event.

A Record Sentencing Event is an Event that classifies an Agencies Record to a specific class of a Records Authority Disposal Class Policy. This helps determine the Records value and how it should be managed throughout its lifecycle.

The Standard for the storage of non-digital archival Records is designed to set out the requirements for the safe storage and preservation of non-digital records in the Archives’ custody; to ensure all non-digital records are protected, secure and accessible for as long as they are required to meet business and accountability needs and community expectations; and to ensure all non-digital records are stored in the most cost-effective manner possible.

A Transfer Event is a Disposal Event that results in a change of custody.

                      An example of a Record Transfer Event is the transfer of a Record from an Agency to the National Archives. Section 27 of the Archives Act 1983 requires Australian government agencies to transfer Records to the Archives within 15 years of their creation.
                    

A Records Authority Function is a Function that is assigned by the National Archives to classify Agency business.

A Records Authority Disposal Class Policy is a Policy that identifies the specific disposal class that authorises the retention or destruction of a Record.

A Role is the function of an entity or agent with respect to an Activity or Event, in the context of a usage, generation, invalidation, association, start, and end.

A Security Classification denotes the security status of a Record that an Agent needs to possess to access the Record.

A Security Control is a safeguard or countermeasures to avoid, detect, counteract, or minimize security risks to a Record or Artefact.

A Series is an identifier for an item, and when combined with a control symbol gives an item its intellectual context.

A Share Activity is an Activity where the custodianship of a Record is transferred to or shared with Agents over a period of time.

A Spatial Coverage denotes the spatial extent to which a Record is observed.

A Spatial Location describes where a something (e.g. a Record, Collection or Artefact) is physically located, using geospatial coordinates such as latitude and longitude.

A Status indicates an Activities current state.

A Temporal Coverage denotes the temporal extent to which a Record is observed.

A Trigger is an entity that initiated an Activity or Event.

A User is an Agent that uses a Record.

A Version History is the cumulative change to a previous version of a file.