A controlling agency is the government agency that controls who can see restricted records held in Archives New Zealand’s (Archives NZ) collection. For example, the controlling agency for many care records is Oranga Tamariki.
Restricted records, such as records about people who have been in care, can only be accessed with permission from the controlling agency. However, you do not need to get permission for restricted records if you request your records directly from the government agency, instead of Archives NZ. Find out how to request your records from government agencies. For Archives NZ’s restricted records, the controlling agency might get the records from Archives and pass them on to you. In this situation, the controlling agency would decide how you can access the records. For example, this might be by emailing electronic documents or posting paper copies.
Archives NZ has digitised some records (made digital or electronic copies). So, if the records you requested have been digitised you can choose to have them emailed to you. But most records are only available to view in a reading room.
The reading rooms are in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch or Dunedin.
You are allowed to take photos of records you access in a reading room.
Accessing records in a reading room can be difficult. You need to go to the reading room in the city the record is in and bring photo ID with you.
If you want to access a record in a reading room, you need to:
Learn more about using the Archives NZ reading roomsopen_in_new.
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