Accessioning focuses on the physical location of the records prior to their inclusion in an archive program. Indeed, it provides the gateway by which records can enter an archive program. A well constructed accessioning system that integrates the related archival and curatorial processes of provenance, series and inventory management enables a full audit trail to be created. Accessioning generally divides records into groups according to physical location and provenance. This is used to document the order in which the records were found and is the vital management information that links the inventory processed records to their origins.
Series have two purposes.
Firstly, they help preserve information about the structure and function of the records when they were last part of an active business or other entity and secondly, they help make it easier for archival users to find their way around the records. Series are normally identifiable because they contain records which were used or kept together as part of a system. Records may be identified as part of a series because they may have been controlled through the same numerical, alphabetical, chronological or other sequence or were united in physical proximity by virtue of their function. They could also result from the same accumulation or filing process, which may mean they are of similar physical shape or information type. A series, therefore may be based on the format, content, function, or control system of the records.