Archives & preservation glossary
Plain-language definitions of 30 terms used in archival research and digital preservation, with links to fuller explanations.
- Access copy
- A version made for reading, listening, viewing or sharing; often smaller or easier to use than the retained master. Read more →
- Accession
- Material formally received into a collection, or the record of that receipt. Read more →
- Appraisal
- Deciding which records have continuing value and should be retained. Read more →
- Arrangement
- The organization of records into groups while preserving meaningful relationships. Read more →
- Bitstream
- The sequence of digital bits that makes up a file. Read more →
- Born-digital
- Created in digital form rather than produced by digitizing a physical original. Read more →
- Checksum
- A value calculated from file content and used to compare that content with a recorded baseline. Read more →
- Citation
- Information that identifies the source and lets a reader find the specific version or item consulted. Read more →
- Collection
- A group of materials connected by a creator, activity, collecting purpose or custodial history. Read more →
- Custodian
- The person or organization responsible for holding and caring for records; not necessarily the creator or rights holder. Read more →
- Derivative
- A file created from another file by a change such as resizing, editing or conversion. Read more →
- Digitization
- Creating a digital representation of an analogue object or recording. Read more →
- Finding aid
- A description that helps researchers understand and locate material within an archival collection. Read more →
- Fixity
- The property of remaining unchanged, commonly checked by comparing recorded and current checksums. Read more →
- Fonds
- Records accumulated by a person, family or organization through its activities. Read more →
- Identifier
- A stable code that distinguishes a record or group and connects it to descriptions and copies. Read more →
- Inventory
- A list describing the scope, location and other useful details of a collection. Read more →
- Lossless compression
- Compression designed to allow exact recovery of the encoded information. Read more →
- Lossy compression
- Compression that discards some information; repeated conversions can introduce further loss. Read more →
- Metadata
- Information describing a record, its technical properties, context, management or access conditions. Read more →
- Migration
- Moving content to another storage environment or format, with checks and documentation of the change. Read more →
- OCR
- Optical character recognition: software-produced text from an image, requiring checking before quotation. Read more →
- Original order
- The arrangement established by a creator or maintained during the records’ use, where it carries meaning. Read more →
- Preservation master
- A version selected for long-term retention, managed with its metadata and dependencies. Read more →
- Primary source
- Material directly connected to the subject under study; its usefulness depends on the question, creator and context. Read more →
- Provenance
- The origin and history of creation, custody or ownership of a record or object. Read more →
- Series
- A group of related records within a larger collection, often reflecting a function or activity. Read more →
- Sidecar
- A separate file holding metadata or instructions associated with another file. Read more →
- Transcription
- A written rendering of spoken or written source material that should distinguish uncertainty and editorial intervention. Read more →
- Version history
- A record or set of retained versions documenting how content changed over time. Read more →
Definitions are concise editorial explanations. For professional terminology, consult the Society of American Archivists dictionary.