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TEAM Canada Terminology Database

TEAM Canada Glossary

Bold text denotes glossary definitions.

access
n., The right, opportunity, or means of finding, using or approaching documents and/or information.

access privilege
n., The authority to access a system to compile, classify, register, retrieve, annotate, read, transfer or destroy information, granted to employees and officers within an organization or agency. (See also:  access restriction, )

access restriction
n., The authority to read a record, granted to a person, position or office within an organization or agency. (See also:  access privilege, )

accessibility
n., The availability and usability of information.

accession
v., To take legal and physical custody of a body of records and to document it in a register.
n., A body of records formally accepted into custody as a unit at a single time.

accession record
n., A record documenting the preserver’s acceptance of responsibility for preserving a clearly identified set of records.

accuracy
n., The degree to which data, information, documents or records are precise, correct, truthful, free of error or distortion, or pertinent to the matter.

act
n., Legislation that has been made law, especially a statute.
n., The conscious exercise of will by a person aimed to create, maintain, modify or extinguish situations. Syn.: action.

active record
n., A record needed by the creator for the purpose of carrying out the action for which it was created or for frequent reference. Syn.: current record.

activity
n., A series of acts or actions aimed to one purpose. (See also:  function, )

addressee
n., Person(s) to whom the record is directed or for whom the record is intended.

administrative accountability
n., The accountability of non-political and non-legal authorities such as civil servants and top-ranking administrators, including the development and implementation of procedures for carrying out actions and the documentation of said procedures to ensure that actions are carried out according to rule and in proper sequence, so that administrators can account at any time precisely for anything that has been done.

administrative context
n., The structure, functions and procedures of the organizational environment in which the creator exists. (See also:  documentary context, juridical-administrative context, provenancial context, technological context, )

administrative control
n., The exercise of authority over maintenance, use, disposition, and accessibility of current archives to carry on the function for which they were created. (See also:  chain of preservation, custodian, custody, intellectual control, unbroken custody, )

affix
v., To store on a medium in an unchangeable way. (See also:  save, )

agency
n., An administrative body having the delegated authority to act competently on behalf of a higher body. Every agency is a juridical person, composed of juridical persons. See also: corporate body; organization. (See also:  corporate body, )

analogue
a., The representation of an object or physical process through the use of continuously variable electronic signals or mechanical patterns. In contrast to a digitally-encoded representation of an object or physical process, an analogue representation resembles the original. (See also:  digital, )

analogue component
n., An analogue object that is part of one or more analogue documents, requiring a given preservation action. (See also:  analogue, analogue document, )

analogue data
n., The smallest meaningful units of information, expressed as continuous electronic signals or mechanical patterns affixed to an analogue medium. (See also:  analogue, analogue medium, )

analogue document
n., An analogue component, or group of components, that is affixed to an analogue medium and is treated and managed as a document. (See also:  analogue, analogue component, analogue medium, document, )

analogue encoding
n., The use of continuously variable electronic signals or mechanical patterns rather than discrete numeric values (such as those generated by a digital system). (See also:  binary encoding, digital encoding, encoding, )

analogue medium
n., Physical material, such as paper, parchment, stone, clay, film or certain types of magnetic audio- and videotape, used for storage of analogue data. (See also:  analogue, analogue data, medium, )

analogue object
n., A discrete aggregation of one type or class of analogue data (e.g., text, audio, video, image). (See also:  analogue data, )

analogue record
n., An analogue document that is treated and managed as a record. (See also:  analogue, analogue document, record, )

analogue system
n., Any system handling analogue data or objects, as opposed to a digital system. (See also:  analogue data, analogue object, digital system, )

application
n., Computer software that allows the user to process data or perform calculations necessary to achieve a desired result, as opposed to the operating system designed to control the computer’s hardware and run all other programs.

appraisal
n., The process of assessing the value of records for the purpose of determining the length and conditions of their preservation.

archival aggregation
n., The whole of the archival documents comprising an aggregate archival unit. (See also:  fonds, )

archival bond
n., The network of relationships that each record has with the records belonging in the same archival aggregation.

archival description
n., The creation of an accurate representation of a unit of description and its component parts, if any, by capturing, analyzing, organizing and recording information that serves to identify, manage, locate and explain archival materials and the context and records systems which produced it. (See also:  administrative control, describe records, intellectual control, )

archival description system
n., The set of descriptive instruments that provide intellectual and physical control over the records of an archival institution or program. Includes, but is not limited to, guides, inventories, indices, repository locators.

archival document
See: record. See also: archives [records].

archival fonds
See: fonds

archival preservation
n., The physical and technological stabilization and protection of intellectual content of archival documents intended for their continuing, enduring, stable, lasting, uninterrupted and unbroken chain of preservation without a foreseeable end. (See also:  digital preservation, permanent preservation, )

archival preservation system
n., The whole of the principles, policies, rules and strategies adopted by an archival institution or program for maintaining digital components and related information over time, and for reproducing the related authentic records and/or archival aggregations of records, that is produced by interpreting external controls and applying them to the records selected for preservation.

archival science
n., The concepts, principles, and methodologies governing the treatment of archives.

archive
v., To save digital data, documents, and records, typically those that are not current, offline.

archives
n., [place] A place where records selected for permanent preservation are kept.
n., [records] The whole of the documents made and received by a juridical or physical person or organization in the conduct of affairs, and preserved.
n., [institution] An agency or institution responsible for the preservation and communication of records selected for permanent preservation.

assessment of authenticity
n., The determination of whether a document has all the formal elements that it was supposed to present when first made or received and set aside. (See also:  authenticity, authenticity requirement, baseline authenticity requirements, benchmark authenticity requirements, presumption of authenticity, )

attachment
n., A document that, on its being physically connected to a record by an act, becomes part of that record. (See also:  document, e-mail attachment, )

attribute
n., A characteristic that uniquely identifies a record or a record element.

audit trail
n., Documentation of all the interactions with records within an electronic system in which any access to the system is recorded as it occurs.

authentic copy
n., A copy certified by an official authorized to execute such a function, so as to render it legally admissible in court. (See also:  conformed copy, copy in form of original, )

authentic record
n., A record that is what it purports to be and that is free from tampering or corruption. (See also:  authentic copy, authenticated record, authoritative copy, authoritative record, authoritative version, complete record, conformed copy, official record, original record, reliable record, )

authenticate
v., To declare, either orally, in writing or by affixion of a seal, that an entity is what it purports to be, after having verified its identity. (See also:  assessment of authenticity, authentication, authenticity, authenticity requirement, certificate of authenticity, )

authenticated record
n., A record whose authenticity has been declared at a specific point in time by a juridical person entrusted with the authority to make such a declaration (e.g. public officer, notary, certification authority). (See also:  authentic copy, authentic record, authoritative copy, authoritative record, authoritative version, complete record, conformed copy, copy in form of original, official record, original record, reliable record, )

authentication
n., A declaration of a record’s authenticity at a specific point in time by a juridical person entrusted with the authority to make such a declaration (e.g., public officer, notary, certification authority). (See also:  assessment of authenticity, authenticity, authenticity requirement, certificate of authenticity, )

authenticity
n., The trustworthiness of a record as a record; i.e., the quality of a record that is what it purports to be and that is free from tampering or corruption. (See also:  assessment of authenticity, authentication, authenticity requirement, baseline authenticity requirements, benchmark authenticity requirements, presumption of authenticity, )

authenticity requirement
n., The specification of the elements of form and context that need to be preserved in order to maintain the authenticity of a given type of electronic record. (See also:  authentication, authenticity, baseline authenticity requirements, benchmark authenticity requirements, presumption of authenticity, )

author
n., The physical or juridical person having the authority and capacity to issue the record or in whose name or by whose command the record has been issued.

authoritative copy
n., The instantiation of a record that is considered by the creator to be its official record and is usually subject to procedural controls that are not required for other instantiations. (See also:  authenticated record, authentic copy, authentic record, authoritative record, authoritative version, copy in form of original, official record, )

authoritative record
n., A record that is considered by the creator to be its official record and is usually subject to procedural controls that are not required for other copies. The identification of authoritative records corresponds to the designation of an office of primary responsibility as one of the components of a records retention schedule. (See also:  authentic copy, authentic record, authenticated record, authoritative copy, authoritative version, complete record, copy in form of original, official record, original record, reliable record, )

authoritative version
n., The version of a record that is considered by the creator to be its official record and is usually subject to procedural controls that are not required for other versions. (See also:  authentic copy, authentic record, authenticated record, authoritative copy, authoritative record, copy in form of original, official record, )

authority
n., The right or permission to act legally on another’s behalf; esp., the power of one person to affect another’s legal relations by acts done in accordance with the other’s manifestations of assent; the power delegated by a principal to an agent.

back up
v., To make a copy of a data file for the purpose of system recovery.

back-end database
n., A database that contains and manages data for an information system, distinct from the presentation or interface components of that system.

backup
n., A copy of a data file made for the purpose of system recovery.

backward compatibility
n., The ability of a software application or a system to share data or commands with older versions of itself, or sometimes other older applications or systems, particularly applications or systems it intends to supplant. Sometimes backward compatibility is limited to being able to read old data but does not extend to being able to write data in a format that can be read by old versions. (See also:  conversion, )

baseline authenticity requirements
n., The minimum conditions necessary to enable the preserver to attest to the authenticity of copies of a creator’s digital records in the custody of the preserver. (See also:  assessment of authenticity, authentication, authenticity, authenticity requirement, benchmark authenticity requirements, presumption of authenticity, )

basic copy
n., A duplicate of an object saved in the file format in which it was originally created or in which it was last used and saved, thus making it more immediately accessible and human-readable in the creator’s usual desktop environment.

benchmark authenticity requirements
n., The conditions that serve as a basis for the preserver’s assessment of the authenticity of a creator’s digital records during appraisal. (See also:  assessment of authenticity, authentication, authenticity, authenticity requirement, baseline authenticity requirements, presumption of authenticity, )

binary code
n., A code made up of the digits 0 and 1, called bits, transmitted as a series of electrical pulses (0 bits at low voltage and 1 bits at higher voltage). (See also:  binary encoding, )

binary encoding
n., The process of converting data into electronic signals for computer storage and processing purposes. (See also:  analogue encoding, binary code, byte-serialized encoding, digital encoding, encoding, )

bit
n., The smallest unit of data (represented by 0 or 1) that a computer can hold in its memory. Syn.: binary bit. (See also:  bitmap, bitstream, byte stream, )

bitmap
n., A digital representation composed of dots arranged in rows and columns, each represented by a single bit of data that determines the value of a pixel in a monochrome image on a computer screen. In a gray scale or color image, each dot is composed of a set of bits that determine the individual values of a group of pixels that in combination create the visual impression of a specific shade or hue. Also spelled “bit map.” (See also:  bit, )

bitstream
n., Digital data encoded in an unstructured sequence of binary bits that are transmitted, stored or received as a unit. (See also:  bit, byte stream, data stream, )

born digital
n., Originally generated in digital form.

bounded variability
n., The changes to the form and/or content of a digital record that are limited and controlled by fixed rules, so that the same query, request or interaction always generates the same result. (See also:  dynamic record, fixed form, stable, )

business process
n., A series of rules that governs the carrying out of a transaction.

byte stream
n., A bitstream in which data (binary bits) are grouped into units called bytes. (See also:  bitstream, data stream, )

byte-serialized encoding
n., The process of converting a digital object’s bitstream state to a byte stream state. (See also:  binary encoding, digital encoding, encoding, )

capture
v., To record and save (i.e., affix, in non-volatile storage, to a digital medium in a stable syntactic manner) a particular instantiation or state of a digital object.
n., The act of recording or saving a particular instantiation of a digital object.

capture documents
v., To record and save (i.e., affix, in non-volatile storage, to a digital medium in a stable syntactic manner) particular instantiations of incoming external documents or internal documents made by the creator in the record-making system in accordance with the specifications of the creator’s integrated business and documentary procedures and record-making access privileges. (See also:  create record, declare records, record creation, record-making, set aside, )

case file
n., An aggregation of records related to a specific action, event, project, person, place or subject.

certificate of authenticity
n., A declaration by the creator or preserver that one or more reproduced or reproducible digital records is authentic. (See also:  authenticate, authentication, )

chain of preservation
n., A system of controls that extends over the entire lifecycle of records in order to ensure their identity and integrity over time. (See also:  administrative control, custodian, custody, intellectual control, permanent preservation, unbroken custody, )

classification
n., The systematic organization of records in groups or categories according to methods, procedures, or conventions represented in a plan or scheme. (See also:  classification code, classification scheme, classified records, classify, )

classification code
n., A series of alphabetical, numerical, or alphanumerical symbols used to identify the record in its documentary context. (See also:  classification, classification scheme, classify, )

classification scheme
n., A plan for the systematic identification and arrangement of business activities and records into categories according to logically structured conventions, methods and procedural rules. (See also:  classification, classification code, classified records, classify, )

classified records
n., Records, made or received by the creator, which have been given a classification code based on the classification scheme. (See also:  classification, classification code, classification scheme, )

classify
v., To arrange systematically in groups or categories according to established criteria. (See also:  classification, classification code, classification scheme, classified records, )

compatibility
n., The ability of different devices or systems (e.g., programs, file formats, protocols, even programming languages) to work together or exchange data without modification. (See also:  cross-platform, )

competence
n., A sphere of functional responsibility entrusted to a physical or juridical person. (See also:  competent person, juridical person, physical person, )

competent person
n., The physical or juridical person given the authority and capacity to act within a specific sphere of responsibility. (See also:  competence, juridical person, physical person, )

complete record
n., A record that contains all the elements required by the creator and the juridical system for it to be capable of generating consequences. (See also:  authentic copy, authenticated record, authentic record, authoritative copy, authoritative record, completeness, conformed copy, copy in form of original, official record, original record, reliable record, )

completeness
n., The characteristic of a record that refers to the presence within it of all the elements required by the creator and the juridical system for it to be capable of generating consequences. With primitiveness and effectiveness, a quality presented by an original record. (See also:  complete record, original record, )

component
n., Uniquely identifiable input, part, piece, assembly or subassembly, system or subsystem, that (1) is required to complete or finish an activity, item, or job, (2) performs a distinctive and necessary function in the operation of a system, or (3) is intended to be included as a part of a finished, packaged, and labeled item. Components are usually removable in one piece and are considered indivisible for a particular purpose or use.

compression
n., The (re)coding of digital data to save storage space or transmission time.

conformed copy
n., An exact copy of a document on which has been written explanations of things that could not or were not copied; e.g., written signature might be replaced on conformed copy with notation that it was signed by the person whose signature appears on the original. (See also:  authentic copy, authentic record, authoritative copy, complete record, reliable record, )

content
n., The message contained in the body of a record.

context
n., The framework in which a record is created, used and maintained.

conversion
n., The process of transforming a digital document or other digital object from one format, or format version, to another one. (See also:  backward compatibility, convert records, transformative migration, transformative migration of records, )

convert records
v., To transform digital records from one format, or format version, to another one in the usual and ordinary course of business (otherwise the activity is not convert but create) for purposes of security, disaster prevention, conservation, overcoming technological obsolescence, ensuring compatibility with a different hardware or software configuration or generation, or compressing the information, while leaving intact their intellectual form. (See also:  backward compatibility, conversion, transformative migration, transformative migration of records, )

copy
n., The duplicate of an object, resulting from a reproduction process.

copy in form of original
n., A copy identical to the original and having the same effects, but generated subsequently. (See also:  authentic copy, authoritative copy, conformed copy, original record, reliable record, )

copyright
n., A property right in an original work of authorship (such as a literary, musical, artistic, photograph, or film work) fixed in any tangible medium of expression, giving the holder the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, perform, and display the work. (See also:  moral rights, )

corporate body
n., An organization or group of persons created by statute that is identified by a particular name and that acts as a legal entity. (See also:  agency, )

create record
v., To make and set aside or receive and set aside records. (See also:  capture documents, created record, declare records, record creation, record-making, set aside, )

created record
n., A made or received document declared a record and set aside for action or reference, usually in a recordkeeping system. (See also:  capture documents, create record, declare records, record creation, record-making, set aside, )

creation procedure
n., The procedure governing the formation of the record and/or its participation in the act.

creator
n., The physical or juridical person who makes, receives, or accumulates records by reason of its mandate/mission, functions or activities. (See also:  competence, competent person, juridical person, physical person, )

cross-platform
a., The capability of software or hardware to run identically on different platforms; facilitated by the adoption of open-standard products and formats. Syn.: platform-independent; platform-neutral. (See also:  compatibility, )

crosswalk
n., A chart or table that represents the semantic mapping of fields or data elements in one metadata standard to fields or data elements in another standard that has a similar function or meaning.

cryptography
n., The practice and study of protecting information by transforming it (encrypting it) into an unreadable format, called cipher text. Only those who possess a secret (private) key can decipher (or decrypt) the message into plain text. (See also:  encryption, )

current record
See: active record

custodian
n., A person or institution that has charge or custody (of a child, property, papers, or other valuables). (See also:  administrative control, chain of preservation, custody, intellectual control, unbroken custody, )

custody
n., The basic responsibility for guardianship of records/archives based upon their physical possession but not necessarily implying legal title. (See also:  administrative control, chain of preservation, custodian, intellectual control, unbroken custody, )

data
n., The smallest meaningful units of information.

data element
n., A discrete component of data.

data format
n., The organization of data within files, usually designed to facilitate the storage, retrieval, processing, presentation, or transmission of the data by software.

data grid
n., The registration of digital entities into a logical name space. Manipulations of registered material can then be automated through any standard computer application programming interface (API).

data model
n., The product of the database design process that aims to identify and organize the required data logically and physically.

data processing
n., The systematic performance of a single operation or sequence of operations by one or more central processing units on data converted to machine-readable format to achieve the result for which the computer program that controls the processing was written.

data restoration
n., The process of recovering data or records as bits from a failed, damaged, degraded or obsolete digital medium, followed by steps to restore the intelligibility of the recovered data or records. Syn.: digital archaeology. (See also:  transformative migration, )

data stream
n., A sequence of digitally encoded signals used to represent information in transmission. Also spelled “datastream.” (See also:  bitstream, byte stream, )

data type
n., The representation of information according to preset specifications (e.g., plain text files, HTML, TIFF, etc.).

database
n., A collection of data items and links between them, structured in a way that allows it to be accessed, manipulated and extracted by a number of different applications programs or query languages.

de facto standard
n., A standard not issued by any official standards-setting body, but nevertheless widely used and recognized by its users as a standard. (See also:  de jure standard, )

de jure standard
n., A standard issued by an official standards-setting body, whether national (e.g., ANSI), multi-national (e.g., CEN) or international (e.g., ISO). (See also:  de facto standard, )

declare records
v., To intellectually set aside records by assigning classification codes from the classification scheme to made or received documents and adding these codes to the identifying metadata, and by assigning to the documents registration numbers based on the registration scheme and adding these numbers to the identifying metadata. (See also:  classification code, classification scheme, declared record, made document, received document, registration scheme, set aside, )

declared record
n., An identified document, made or received by the creator, which has been given a classification code based on the classification scheme and has been registered according to the registration scheme. (See also:  classification code, classification scheme, declare records, made document, received document, registration scheme, set aside, )

decompression
n., Returning a compressed image or compressed data to its uncompressed form. Some compression methods lose information so that the uncompressed image or data is not equivalent to the original.

describe records
v., To record information about the nature and make-up of records acquired for permanent preservation and about their juridical-administrative, provenancial, procedural, documentary and technological contexts, as well as information about any changes they have undergone since they were first created. (See also:  archival description, )

designated records preserver
n., The entity responsible for taking physical and legal custody of and preserving (i.e., protecting and ensuring continuous access to) authentic copies of a creator’s inactive records. The role of the designated preserver should be that of a trusted custodian for a creator’s records. Syn.: designated preserver; preserver. (See also:  trusted custodian, trusted records officer, )

digital
a., The representation of a physical process through discrete, binary values. (See also:  binary code, digital encoding, )

digital audio tape
n., (DAT) A type of magnetic digital medium that can store digital data by using helical scan recording. (See also:  digital linear tape, )

digital component
n., A digital object that is part of one or more digital documents, and the metadata necessary to order, structure or manifest its content and form, requiring a given preservation action. (See also:  analogue component, )

digital data
n., The smallest meaningful units of information, expressed as binary bits that are digitally encoded and affixed to a digital medium. (See also:  analogue data, )

digital document
n., A digital component, or group of digital components, that is saved and is treated and managed as a document. (See also:  analogue document, )

digital encoding
n., The use of discrete numeric values (such as the binary values 0 and 1) rather than a continuous spectrum of values (such as those generated by an analogue system). (See also:  analogue encoding, binary encoding, byte-serialized encoding, digital, encoding, )

digital forensics
n., The use of scientifically derived and proven methods toward the preservation, collection, validation, identification, analysis, interpretation, documentation, and presentation of digital evidence derived from digital sources for the purpose of facilitation or furthering the reconstruction of events found to be criminal, or helping to anticipate unauthorized actions shown to be disruptive to planned operations.

digital format
n., The byte-serialized encoding of a digital object that defines the syntactic and semantic rules for the mapping from an information model to a byte stream and the inverse mapping from that byte stream back to the original information model. Syn.: digital presentation. (See also:  byte-serialized encoding, byte stream, )

digital linear tape
n., (DLT) A type of magnetic digital medium that stores digital data using longitudinal recording. (See also:  digital audio tape, )

digital medium
n., Physical material, such as a CD, DVD, DAT or hard disk, used for storage of digital data. (See also:  analogue medium, medium, )

digital object
n., A discrete aggregation of one or more bitstreams and the metadata about the properties of the object and, if applicable, methods of performing operations on the object. (See also:  bitstream, digital, )

digital record
n., A digital document that is treated and managed as a record. (See also:  digital, digital document, record, )

digital records forensics
n., The identification of records among all the digital objects produced by complex digital systems, and the determination of their authenticity.

digital signature
n., An electronic signature based on public key cryptography. (See also:  cryptography, electronic signature, )

digital system
n., Any system handling binary data, as opposed to an analogue system. (See also:  analogue system, binary code, )

digital timestamp
n., A binary code attached to a record indicating the time that an event occurred, such as creation, receipt, reading, modification or deletion. (See also:  binary code, )

digital videodisc
n., (DVD) A type of single- or double-sided, optical digital medium that stores digital data on two continuous, microscopic, spiral tracks or grooves that are cut and read by a laser beam. Its logical format specifications are governed by the Universal Disk Format (UDF) specification. Syn.: digital versatile disc. (See also:  digital medium, )

document
n., An indivisible unit of information constituted by a message affixed to a medium (recorded) in a stable syntactic manner. A document has fixed form and stable content. (See also:  analogue document, attachment, digital document, identified document, made document, received document, record, schema document, )

document type definition
n., (DTD) The definition of a document type in SGML or XML, consisting of a set of markup tags and their interpretation. (See also:  schema document, )

documentary context
n., The archival fonds to which a record belongs, and its internal structure. (See also:  administrative context, juridical-administrative context, provenancial context, technological context, )

documentary form
n., The rules of representation according to which the content of a record, its administrative and documentary context, and its authority are communicated. Documentary form possesses both extrinsic and intrinsic elements. (See also:  record attribute, )

documentary procedure
n., The body of rules governing the making of an archival document. The more standardized and rigorous the procedure, the more reliable the record is presumed to be.

documentation
n., All material that serves primarily to describe a system and make it more readily understandable, rather than to contribute in some way to the actual operation of the system. Documentation is frequently classified according to purpose; thus for a given system there may be requirements documents, design documents, and so on. In contrast to documentation oriented toward development and maintenance of the system, user documentation describes those aspects of the system that are of interest to end-users.

dossier
n., The aggregation of all the records that participate in the same affair or relate to the same event, person, place, project, or other subject. (See also:  file, fonds, records series, )

draft
n., A record made for purposes of correction.

dynamic record
n., A record the content of which is dependent upon data that might have variable instantiations and be held in databases and spreadsheets internal or external to the system in which the record is generated. (See also:  bounded variability, )

e-government
n., The use of information technologies, especially the Internet to improve government services for and interactions with citizens (G2C) , businesses and industry (G2B), and different division of government (G2G) by simplifying processes, and by integrating and eliminating redundant systems.

electronic discovery
n., The process of collecting, preparing, reviewing, and producing electronically stored information (ESI) in the context of the legal process.

electronic record
n., An analogue or digital record that is carried by an electrical conductor and requires the use of electronic equipment to be intelligible by a person.

electronic signature
n., A digital mark that has the function of a signature in, is attached to, or is logically associated with a record, and is used by a signatory to take responsibility for, or to give consent to, the content of the record. (See also:  digital signature, )

element of form
n., A constituent part of the record’s documentary form, visible on the face of the record. It may be either extrinsic, like a seal, or intrinsic, like a subscription.

e-mail
n., An abbreviation of electronic mail, an Internet protocol that allows computer users to exchange messages and data files in real time with other users, locally and across networks. (See also:  e-mail attachment, )

e-mail attachment
n., A file that is linked to and is transmitted along with an e-mail message. The attached file can be of any type. (See also:  attachment, document, e-mail, )

emulation
n., The reproduction of the behaviour and results of obsolete software or systems through the development of new hardware and/or software to allow execution of the old software or systems on future computers. Syn.: preservation emulation. See also: encapsulation; preservation strategy; wrapper. (See also:  encapsulation, )

enabling record
n., A prospective record encoded in machine language that is actively involved in carrying out an action or process. With dispositive, instructive, narrative, probative and supporting, one of six functional categories of records.

encapsulation
n., The process of binding together a digital document or other digital object and the means of providing access to it, normally in a wrapper that describes what it is in a way that can be understood by a wide range of technologies (such as an XML document). See also: emulation; preservation strategy. (See also:  emulation, )

encoding
n., The representation of symbols in some alphabet by symbols or strings of symbols in some other alphabet. (See also:  analogue encoding, binary encoding, byte-serialized encoding, digital encoding, encryption, )

encryption
n., The conversion of data into a secret code (or of plaintext into ciphertext) for transmission over a public network. (See also:  cryptography, encoding, )

enduring value
n., The continuing usefulness or significance of records, as determined on the basis of various factors, including but not limited to administrative, legal, fiscal, evidential, informational or cultural considerations. The recognition of this value contributes to a decision of continuing preservation of records. Syn.: continuing value, permanent value, archival value

evidence
n., All the means by which any alleged matter of fact, the truth of which is submitted to investigation, is established or disproved.

executed record
n., A record that has participated in the execution phase of an administrative procedure and to which metadata that convey the actions taken during the course of the procedure have been attached, such as priority of transmission, transmission date, time and/or place, actions taken, etc.

extrinsic element
n., [diplomatics] An element of the documentary form of a record that constitutes its external appearance. (See also:  intrinsic element, )

file
v., To set aside a document made or received among the records that participate in the same action/affair or relate to the same person or subject, so that they may be retrieved for action or reference.

first manifestation of a record
n., The documentary form that a record has when it is open for the first time upon receipt or after having been captured and declared as a record. (See also:  original record, )

fixed form
n., The quality of a record that ensures its content remains complete and unaltered. (See also:  bounded variability, stable, )

folder
n., A cover in which non-electronic records, belonging in the same dossier, are loosely kept, usually in chronological order. A dossier may be distributed across a number of folders.

fonds
n., The whole of the records that a physical or juridical person accumulates by reason of its function or activity. Syn.: archives. (See also:  archival aggregation, file, dossier, records series, )

function
n., All of the activities aimed to accomplish one purpose. (See also:  activity, )

identified document
n., A made or received document to which the identity metadata (e.g., persons, actions and dates of compilation) have been attached. (See also:  made document, received document, )

identity
n., The whole of the characteristics of a document or a record that uniquely identify it and distinguish it from any other document or record. With integrity, a component of authenticity. (See also:  Ontology C )

information
n., An assemblage of data, especially when organized to convey a complex unit of meaning.

ingest
n., In the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model, processes related to receiving information from an external source and preparing it for storage.

institutional repository
n., A set of services that an institution offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members.

instructive record
n., A prospective record that contains instructions about executing an action or process. With dispositive, enabling, narrative, probative and supporting, one of six functional categories of records.

integrity
n., The quality of being complete and unaltered in all essential respects.

intellectual control
n., The control established over archival material by documenting in finding aids its provenance, custodial history, arrangement, composition, scope, informational content and internal and external relationships. (See also:  administrative control, chain of preservation, custodian, custody, unbroken custody, )

intellectual form
n., [diplomatics] The whole of the formal attributes of the record that represent and communicate the elements of the action in which the record is involved and of its immediate context, both documentary and administrative. (See also:  physical form, )

intrinsic element
n., [diplomatics] An element of the documentary form of a record that constitutes its internal composition and that conveys the action in which the record participates and its immediate context. (See also:  extrinsic element, )

juridical person
n., An entity having the capacity or the potential to act legally and constituted either by a succession or collection of physical persons or a collection of properties. (See also:  competence, competent person, creator, physical person, )

juridical system
n., A social group that is organized on the basis of a system of rules and that includes three components: the social group, the organizational principle of the social group, and the system of binding rules recognized by the social group.

juridical-administrative context
n., The legal and organizational system in which the creating body belongs. (See also:  administrative context, documentary context, provenancial context, technological context, )

legacy
a., Describes an object inherited from an earlier administrative and/or technological context or environment that may require some deliberate intervention or action, such as upgrading, updating, conversion or transformative migration, to enable the object to be accessed, rendered, manifested, used, maintained, managed and/or preserved in the current context or environment.

made document
n., A document composed or compiled by the creator. (See also:  capture documents, identified document, received document, )

manifest
v., To render a stored digital object in a form suitable for presentation either to a person (i.e., in human-readable form) or to a computer system (i.e., in machine language). (See also:  reconstitute, )

medium
n., The physical material or substance upon which information can be or is recorded or stored. (See also:  analogue medium, digital medium, )

migration
n., The process of moving or transferring digital objects from one system to another. (See also:  refreshing, transformative migration, )

migration of records
n., The process of moving records from one system to another to ensure their continued accessibility as the system becomes obsolete, while leaving intact their extrinsic and intrinsic elements of form. (See also:  conversion, convert records, migration, refreshing, refreshing of records, transformative migration of records, )

moral rights
n., Those rights that the author or creator retains (regardless of whether the author still retains the economic rights) over the integrity of a work (rights of reputation)—such that no one, even the copyright owner, is allowed to distort, mutilate or otherwise modify the work in a way that is prejudicial to the author’s honour or reputation; the right to be associated with the work as its author by name or under a pseudonym and the right to remain anonymous (rights of attribution); and the right to refuse to allow the work to be used in association with a product, service, cause or institution in a way that is prejudicial to the author’s honour or reputation (rights of association). (See also:  copyright, )

normalization
n., The process or creating and/or storing digital documents or other digital objects in a limited number of, often standardized, data or file formats.

official record
n., A complete, final, and authorized version or instantiation of a record. (See also:  authentic record, authenticated record, authoritative record, complete record, original record, reliable record, )

original record
n., The first copy or archetype; that form in which another instrument is transcribed, copied, or initiated. (See also:  authentic record, authenticated record, authoritative record, complete record, official record, reliable record, )

permanent preservation
n., The physical and technological stabilization and protection of intellectual content of materials intended for their continuing, enduring, stable, lasting, uninterrupted and unbroken chain of preservation, without a foreseeable end. (See also:  chain of preservation, )

physical form
n., [diplomatics] The whole of the formal attributes of the record that determine its external make-up. (See also:  intellectual form, )

physical person
n., A human being, as distinguished from a juridical person, who has natural rights and duties and who has the ability to act in his or her own right in relations with other people. Syn.: natural person. (See also:  competence, competent person, creator, juridical person, )

preservation
n., The whole of the principles, policies, and strategies that controls the activities designed to ensure materials’ (data, documents, or records) physical and technological stabilization and protection of intellectual content.

presumption of authenticity
n., An inference as to the fact of a record’s authenticity that is drawn from known facts about the manner in which that record has been created and maintained. (See also:  assessment of authenticity, authentication, authenticity, authenticity requirement, baseline authenticity requirements, benchmark authenticity requirements, )

protocol register
n., A type of register that records the identifying attributes of incoming, outgoing, and internal records, specifing the action taken.

provenancial context
n., The creating body, its mandate, structure, and functions (See also:  administrative context, documentary context, juridical-administrative context, technological context, )

received document
n., A document transmitted to a creator from an external juridical or physical person. (See also:  identified document, made document, )

reconstitute
v., To link and assemble the stored digital component(s) of a document to enable the document to be reproduced and manifested in authentic form.

record
n., A document made or received in the course of a practical activity as an instrument or a by-product of such activity, and set aside for action or reference. (See also:  accession record, active record, analogue record, attachment, authentic copy, authentic record, authenticated record, authoritative copy, authoritative record, authoritative version, classified records, complete record, conformed copy, copy in form of original, created record, declared record, digital document, document, draft, dynamic record, electronic record, enabling record, executed record, first manifestation of a record, identified document, instructive record, made document, official record, original record, received document, record attribute, record characteristic, record creation, record element, records series, reliable record, )

record attribute
n., [diplomatics] A defining characteristic of a record or of a record element (e.g., the name of the author). (See also:  documentary form, )

record characteristic
n., [diplomatics] A quality that belongs to all records, such as a fixed documentary form, a stable content, an archival bond with other records either inside or outside the system, and an identifiable context.

record creation
n., The first phase of a record's lifecycle in which a record is made or received and then set aside for action or reference. (See also:  capture documents, create record, created record, declare records, record-making, set aside, )

record element
n., [diplomatics] A constituent part of a record’s documentary form; an element is a formal expression visible on the face of the record (e.g., a signature).

recordkeeping
n., The function of capturing, storing and maintaining records and information about them, and the set of rules governing such function. (See also:  create record, record creation, recordkeeping system, record-making, )

recordkeeping system
n., A set of rules governing the storage, use, maintenance and disposition of records and/or information about records, and the tools and mechanisms used to implement these rules. (See also:  recordkeeping, )

record-making
n., The whole of the principles, policies, rules and strategies that controls the process of creating records from made or received documents. (See also:  create record, record creation, recordkeeping, )

records management
n., The systematic design, implementation, maintenance and administrative control of a framework for the making and keeping of records by a records manager (trusted records officer) to ensure efficiency and economy in their creation, use, handling, control, maintenance and disposition.
n., The field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities in the form of records.

records series
n., Dossiers, file units, or individual documents that are arranged in accordance with a classification or filing system or that are maintained as a unit because they result from the same accumulation or filing process, the same function or the same activity, and that have a particular form or because of some other relationship arising out of their creation, receipt, or use. (See also:  dossier, file, fonds, )

records system
n., The system that comprises the creator’s records, its recordkeeping and record-preservation system and is controlled by the creator’s records management function.

refreshing
n., The process of copying the digital content from one digital medium to another (includes copying to the same kind of medium). (See also:  conversion, convert records, migration, migration of records, transformative migration, transformative migration of records, )

refreshing of records
n., The process of refreshing digital records in the usual and ordinary course of business to ensure their continued accessibility as their storage medium becomes obsolete or degrades over time, while leaving intact their intellectual form. (See also:  migration of records, transformative migration of records, )

registration scheme
n., A method for assigning a unique identifier to each record. (See also:  classification scheme, declare records, )

reliability
n., The trustworthiness of a record as a statement of fact. It exists when a record can stand for the fact it is about, and is established by examining the completeness of the record's form and the amount of control exercised on the process of its creation.

reliable record
n., A record capable of standing for the facts to which it attests. (See also:  authentic record, authenticated record, complete record, official record, )

retrieval system
n., A set of rules governing searching and finding records in a recordkeeping system, and the tools and mechanisms used to implement these rules.

save
v., To affix a digital object in non-volatile storage on a digital medium. (See also:  affix, )

schema document
n., An SGML-compliant document that defines the structure and contents of other SGML-compliant documents, in a similar manner to a Document Type Definition (DTD). Syn.: document schema. (See also:  document type definition, )

selection system
n., The appraisal strategies, monitoring procedures, and disposition rules and procedures within the permanent preservation system, together with the tools and mechanisms needed to effect selection of records.

set aside
v., To declare a record and retain it for future reference or use, usually in a recordkeeping system. (See also:  capture documents, create record, declare records, record creation, recordkeeping, record-making, )

stable
a., With reference to content, either unchangeable or changeable according to fixed rules, that is, endowed with bounded variability. (See also:  fixed form, bounded variability, )

status of transmission
n., The degree of perfection of a record, that is, whether it is a draft, an original or a copy

technological context
n., The characteristics of the hardware, software, and other components of an electronic computing system in which records are created. (See also:  administrative context, documentary context, juridical-administrative context, provenancial context, )

transformative migration
n., The process of converting or upgrading digital objects or systems to a newer generation of hardware and/or software computer technology. (See also:  conversion, convert records, data restoration, migration, migration of records, transformative migration of records, )

transformative migration of records
n., The process of converting records in the usual and ordinary course of business (otherwise the activity is not migration but creation) to maintain their compatibility with a newer generation of hardware and/or software computer technology, while leaving intact their intellectual form. (See also:  conversion, convert records, migration, migration of records, transformative migration, )

transmission
n., The moving of a record across space (from a person or organization to another, or from a system to another), or through time.

trusted custodian
n., A preserver who can demonstrate that it has no reason to alter the preserved records or allow others to alter them and is capable of implementing all of the requirements for the preservation of authentic copies of records. (See also:  authenticity requirement, baseline authenticity requirements, designated records preserver, trusted records officer, )

trusted records officer
n., An individual or a unit within the creating organization who is responsible for keeping and managing the creator’s records, who has no reason to alter the creator’s records or allow others to alter them and who is capable of implementing all of the requirements for authentic records. (See also:  authenticity requirement, baseline authenticity requirements, designated records preserver, trusted custodian, )

trustworthiness
n., The accuracy, reliability and authenticity of a record.

unbroken custody
n., A traceable and uninterrupted line of care, control and usually possession of a body of records from creation to preservation that can serve as a means of protecting the authenticity of the records. (See also:  administrative control, chain of preservation, custodian, custody, intellectual control, )

 

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