Essential Terminology

Ubiquitous Language to be used by all stake-holders.

• archive Archives are places where unpublished, one-of-a-kind materials (also called archives) are preserved for their research value. According to the Oxford Dictionary, an archive is both "a place in which public records or historic documents are kept," and "a historical record or document so preserved." source

• fonds synonyms: archive group, record group Fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization.[1] An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poet that were never published or the records of an institution during a specific period.

  Fonds are a part of a hierarchical level of description system in an archive that begins with fonds at the top, and the subsequent levels become more descriptive and narrower as one goes down the hierarchy. The level of description goes from fonds to series to file and then an item level. However, between the fonds and series level there is sometimes a sub-fonds or sous-fonds level and between the series to file level there is sometimes a sub-series level that helps narrow down the hierarchy. source

• collection A set of items clubbed together to present a narrative. The individual items may or may not be part of the same fonds, provenance or other schematic grouping present in the archive.