Archiving Toolkit | 23 Archival Terms
Demystifying Archival Lingo
Terms with Multiple Meanings
- Archives, singular or plural noun
- Part of a building, usually a library that houses historical and unique records
- Unique, original records/collections housed in an archives
- Collection of digital online periodicals
- Archive, verb, to organize and preserve for long term access
- Collection
- Set of archived materials from the original creator maintained as a unit
- Artificially gathered materials on a topic or theme maintained as a unit
- Records, Documents–umbrella terms for all pieces of evidence
- Records–term used to distinguish organizational records from the papers of an individual
- Papers-used to refer to archival collections of an individual. Contents of a person’s "papers" includes paper and non-paper formats.
- Manuscripts
- Term for the archives of an individual rather than an organization.
- Drafts of published books
Two Key Archival Principles
- Provenance
- Origin or source of something
- Information regarding the origins and chain of custody of an item or collection
- Archival principle that collections are organized according to their donor, not their topic. This keeps records from different original sources (provenance) as separate collections to preserve their context. Note that this is the opposite of library arrangement by subject matter and similar to library arrangement of fiction.
- Original Order – Archival principle that collections be arranged as closely as possible to the way they were organized by the creator of the records during their use and storage.
Alphabetical List of Useful Archival Terms
- Access–refers to availability of the collection for users. This involves the description of the collection (see finding aid) or online digital copies of materials in the collection.
- Accession-term for physically and officially transferring a collection to a archival repository. See Gift Agreement.
- Artifact–term used for a three-dimensional object held in an archives or museum.
- Description–usually relates to information about the collection as found in the finding aid.
- Ephemera–materials, usually printed documents, created for a specific, limited purpose, and generally designed to be discarded after use, such as flyers, posters, badges, etc.
- Finding Aid–a guide to a collection that provides information about the collection including a list of folders; a historical or biographical note about the creator; , provenance; a description of the contents of the collection, including size, subjects, media; and an inventory of the arrangement and content of the folders.
- Format–broad term often used in archives to indicate the distinctive type of materials as characterized by physical characteristics. Examples are: VHS; .pdf; glass slides.
- Genre – A distinctive type of materials with a typical layout. Examples include memos (with a date, sender, addressee, and message) and meeting minutes (which summarize meetings in chronological order.)
- Gift Agreement, Donor Agreement, or Deed of Gift – a legal agreement transferring title to an archival resource to an archival institution. It usually specifies conditions for access and copyright.
- Processing – preparing archival materials for storage use. It includes housing materials for long term preservation, arranging content, and creating a finding aid.
- Reference Desk/Reference Service – reference archivists in the Reading Room assist users to find materials of interest, retrieve materials from stacks, and supervise the security of the collections while in use. Reference Service staff answer requests about collections from users outside of the Reading Room.
- Record schedule – a management tool that pre-determines when digital or analog records are no longer of active use and sets a date for destruction and/or transfer to an archives for long term preservation.
- Reparation/Reparative Description – relates to remediation of prior mis-description or failure to describe how archival resources related to marginalized people. Reparative practices often includes asking for input by marginalized communities in establishing new standards of description.
- Series – useful grouping of a collection during processing based on genre (such as meeting minutes, correspondence), formats (photographs, .doc files), or subject (Pride Day, AIDS).
- Stacks – an area, usually not open to the public, where archival materials are shelved for storage. Reference desk staff have location information needed to retrieve requested materials from the stacks.
- Web archiving – the process of collecting, preserving, and providing enduring access to web content.
For professional definitions see the Society of American Archivists lexicon
Donating Your Records to an Archives