Archival descriptions
A catalogue or finding aid for a collection of archival material. The archival description should always tell you at least: the title of the collection; the collection's reference code; where the materials are located (repository); the dates, date range, or approximate dates of the material; who created the collection (name of creator); what sorts of material or information the collection contains (scope and content); whether there are restrictions on accessing the collection (access conditions); the language of the material; and how much material is in the collection (extent).
Collection
Documents or material of any kind that have accumulated as part of the normal activity of an organisation, business or individual and been kept as a unit in an archival repository. Sometimes the term fonds may be used for a collection of material created by an individual person or organisation where the integrity of the whole is important, as it provides contextual evidence for all of the items.
A collection may be a single item (letter, diary, film etc), or it may be made up of many items. The extent will indicate how big the collection is.
The term artificial collection may be used for archival material with no shared provenance, brought together from diverse sources, often for the convenience of description and retrieval, e.g material on the same topic.
Context
The organisational, functional, and operational circumstances surrounding the creation, receipt, storage, or use of a collection of materials. This information can inform the user about the evidential value of the materials.
Digital objects
A digital object is a digital representation of some or all of the material in an archive collection. This may be a digital surrogate, or it might be born-digital material, such as a digital photograph or mp3 recording. Digital objects are often available online.
Extent
In an archival description, this provides information about the quantity of materials in the collection, or the physical space they occupy. This information can help you to decide how long to allow for a visit to the archive.
Fond(s)
In a collection description, 'fonds' is a term often used by archivists for the material created or collected by a particular person, family, or organisation in the course of their activities, in order to distinguish this type of collection from an artificial collection. This distinction is important because a collection with a single provenance has particular evidential value - the parts of the collection all relate to eachother and provide context for eachother.
Item
Items can be found within folders or as single items. Examples are a letter, a photograph, a physical audio-visual item (for example, videocassette). It is more common to catalogue to a higher level (such as sub-sub-series), although when access to digital items can be provided, an item level description would be required (for example, when a cassette tape has been digitised).
Level
For an archival description, the level is the particular point in the hierarchy that is being described. For example 'collection', 'series', 'item'. Levels are nested, so that a 'subseries' forms one part of a 'series', and an 'item' may form one part of a 'subseries'.
Reference Code
Each archival collection described on the Archives Hub has a unique code to identify it, often a name or a sequence of numbers, or a combination of both.
Repository
The archive, library, or special collection, where an archival collection is stored. Usually a repository has a reading room for consulting materials, and strong rooms with environmental controls for housing the collections.
Series
A 'series' are records grouped together through the original filing system of the creator, or which have the same function. Examples of record series might include correspondence, minutes, and administrative files.
These descriptions have been taken from the Archives Hub and the University of Kent archive glossary.