You are in: Home - Glossary

Glossary

Contains Archives terminology used in the A.D.A site.

• Archives
  The entirety of the collection of documents produced by a public body (public office, private institute, family or individual) during the course of its activity.
• Current Archives
  Documentation relative to current activities of a body or institute.
• Contemporary Archives
  Documentation relative to concluded activities where the documents in question are not yet destined to permanent conservation and thus still useful for administrative purposes.
• Historical Archives
  Documents relative to activities concluded more than forty years previously, destined to permanent conservation and to be available to the public for consultation.
• Box File
  The terms "Box File" and "Folder" are synonymous. Rigid cardboard container, usually closed by means of laces, which contains loose documents or documents held in folders.
  
  

• Collection
  A group of documents of various origins which are sorted under subject (e.g. collections of drawings, collections of the documents of one same author, collections of photographs or of prints).
• Document
  In archivist terminology document is to be intended as a written act, a photograph, drawing or graphic representation, executed as part of the activity of a body or institution.
• File
  A collection of documents relative to a specific activity, held in chronological order within a cover.
• Accessible Archives
  A Collection of documents characterised by organity and unity, produced by a body or institution. This may also include miscellaneous groupings or collections.
• Index
  Alphabetical list of place names, people, subjects, often ordered also chronologically, related to a Collection of documents.
• Inventory
  Fundamental tool for carrying out archives searches. It contains the description of all the individual items held in the archives.
• Register
  A group of bound papers on which specific documents or subjects are registered.
  
  

• Series
  A group of documents, created by the body itself, characterised by homogeneity of form, of subject and of topic in relation to the function of the body.
• Volume
  Collection of loose documents which were subsequently bound for the purposes of conservation.

Essential Bibliography

• Donato Tamblè, Modern Archives: Doctrine and Practice, Roma 1994
• Paola Carucci, Archives sources: ordering and conservation, Roma 2003