Glossary

This is a list providing a brief guide to the terns we use on the Archives Hub website.

A : B : C : D : E : F : G : H : I : J : K : L : M : N : O : P : Q : R : S : T : U : W : X : Y : Z

A

AACR2

Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules are a bibliographic standard, one of the indexing conventions preferred by the Archives Hub, used when cataloguers add Access Points to their descriptions.

AAT

Art & Architecture Thesaurus. A bibliographic standard, one of the indexing conventions preferred by the Archives Hub, used when cataloguers add Access Points to their descriptions.

Access Conditions

Within an archival description, this provides information about conditions that affect the availability or usability of the materials being described. This will include details of any restrictions on access imposed by the donor or the repository, or any legal restrictions.

Access keys

You can use your keyboard to help you navigate quickly to some of the Hub's main webpages.

Access Points

These are names and subjects, acting as index terms or keywords for searching and browsing on the Hub. Access Points on the Hub are also links - you can follow these links to look at more descriptions with the same index term, and which therefore cover a similar topic. This is not to be confused with access to archival material the collection itself.

Accruals

As part of an archival description, this provides information about any expected additions to the material being described.

Administrative/Biographical History

As part of an archival description, this is a historical note that places the archival material in context, by providing biographical or historical details about its creator or creators.

AJAX

A JavaScript programming application used by Cheshire 3 and the Hub's EAD Editor.

Ampersand

The special character & sometimes used for the word 'and', and also used in software programming. In EAD and XML, this character has to be encoded as & if used within the content of an archival description.

Application Programming Interface (API)

A simple, standard way for software programs to interact, so that access to data can be provided through a variety of applications. The Archives Hub provides access to data through SRU (Search & Retrieve via URI) and through OAI-PMH (enabling harvesting of the data). This provides for the potential for access to the data through different applications.

Appraisal

Within an archival description, this provides information about how the archival materials were assessed by the archivist,

Archival description

A catalogue or finding aid for a collection of archival material. Most of the descriptions on the Hub are at collection-level. The Hub's descriptions are created in EAD format for publishing on the web.

Archivist's note

Some of the archival descriptions on the Hub may include an Archivist's Note, which provides information about who created the description, and what resources they may have used in the process.

ARCHON

A directory of repositories maintained by The National Archives. The ARCHON directory provides a unique reference number for each repository, which allows the Hub's Cheshire 3 software to limit a search to a particular repository if required.

Attribute

In XML and EAD, elements contain additional information about a document inside their tags. This information is known as the attribute's 'value', and is sometimes limited to a controlled vocabulary.

B

Blog

This is a kind of interactive website regularly updated by individuals, with news and opinions. The Archives Hub Blog [link] is written by members of the Hub team, but anyone is welcome to post their comments there.

Boolean operators

This is something borrowed from mathematics for use in programming, where a computer can combine tasks in different ways, using AND, OR, and NOT. On the Hub's Advanced Search page [link], you can combine two or more search fields in two of these ways: selecting AND looks for a combination of all your search terms, and selecting OR looks for any of your search terms.

C

c. ca ., circa

'About'. As part of an archival description, used to indicate an approximate date or quantity.

Calendar

Archivists sometimes use this word for an inventory of items in a collection that are listed chronologically.

CALM

CALM is a database mangement system used by many archives and museums for cataloguing, and is being developed to produce descriptions in EAD format suitable for the Hub.

Character encoding

Special characters are those characters not easily available on a standard English-language keyboard. In addition XML reserves several characters such as & for markup. So archival descriptions created in EAD have to use the appropriate character encoding from the international standard ISO 8879,

Character keyboard

This is a 'virtual keyboard' which appears in your web browser, as part of the Archives Hub's online EAD Editor. This is used for adding special characters to an archival description, and requires your web browser to use JavaScript

Cheshire 3

Sophisticated search and retrieval software for XML and EAD, used by the Archives Hub. Cheshire was developed especially for use with EAD. The Archives Hub now uses a distributed version of Cheshire, with several individualrepositories managing their own Spokes. Cheshire 3 also provides an online editing tool for EAD.

Child/Parent

This describes a certain kind of relationship between archival collections, or between components of an archival description or descriptions. This relationship has to be defined when cataloguers use a Persistent Unique Identifier to create ahypertext link between descriptions on the Archives Hub

Collection

Documents of any kind brought together and kept as a unit in archival repository. Sometimes the term fonds may be used for a collection of material created by an individual person or organisation, and the term 'artificial collection' may be preferred for archival material brought together by an individual collector or by a repository

Collection description

A document describing the material within an archival collection and providing essential information about its origin and management, such as its custodial history. This might instead be referred to as a catalogue, or as a finding aid.

Collection-level

This describes a description that summarises general information about the archival material in a collection, without details of individual items..

Component

In EAD, the information in multi-level archival descriptions is organised into individual components. Descriptions may sometimes be referred to as 'component-level', in contrast to collection-level.

controlaccess

In EAD, this element is where indexing terms or keywords are added to an archival description. This is not to be confused with access to archival material the collection itself.

Controlled language

See controlled vocabulary.

Controlled vocabulary

Archival descriptions for the Hub include index terms or keywords under the heading Access Points. These keywords have been selected from a thesaurus or by using a set of indexing rules. In EAD documents, attribute values are also sometimes limited to a controlled vocabulary. A controlled vocabulary's terminology is defined by national or international standards, in contrast to everyday language, and ensures consitency by controlling the choice of keywords.

Copyright/Reproduction

In archival descriptions for the Hub, information is provided here about whether you may copy, quote, or publish material from within the archival collection. There may be limitations imposed by the collection's donor, or there may be legal restrictions on the use of the material. This will often include information about copyright of the material.

Corporate Names

In the Access Points section of a description, a Corporate Name identifies a particular group of people or organisation. Examples include businesses, clubs and societies, religious bodies, and government agencies. Corporate Names are also used for ships and conferences.

Creation Information

In descriptions on the Hub, this usually appears under the heading 'Cataloguing Info', and provides information about how the description was created, and the person or agency responsible for it.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets. Used for the formatting and presentation of webpages, and important for web accessibility.

Custodial History

In an archival description, this outlines the 'chain of ownership' or 'provenance' of the material in the collection, before it reached the source from where it was acquired by the repository.

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Data creation template

The Archives Hub has provided several online templates for creating descriptions in EAD. The current data creation template is the EAD Editor.

Dates of Creation

In an archival description, this shows either the date (or dates) when the material was accumulated by the creator of the collection, or the date (or dates) when the documents themselves were created - including if this was before they became part of the collection.

Description

A document which describes and explains the content and context of a collection of archival material. See also Collection description, Archival description.

Digital surrogate

Electronic copy of an original document, or digitised photograph of an item, where the original is not otherwise accessible.

Distributed model

The Archives Hub's Cheshire software allows individual repositories to hold and maintain their own descriptions locally, whilst the Archives Hub's central website continues to provide exactly the same search and retrieval service to users.

DOM

Document Object Model. A convention for the interoperability of XML documents

DTD

Document Type Definition. A set of rules for creating an XML document, defining a list of elements and attributes. See also Tag library, and Schema.

Dublin Core

An international standard for metadata in electronic documents, with a basic set of elements for cataloguing. Named after Dublin, Ohio, where it originated.

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E

EAC-CPF

Encoded Archival Context: Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families. In a description for an archival collection, the biographical or historical notes may include information in a standardised form, for better interoperability. EAC-CPF is an international standard for encoding this information using XML.

EAD

See Encoded Archival Description

EAD Editor

This is the Archives Hub's own online template for creating and editing archival descriptions in EAD. The EAD Editor is part of the Cheshire 3 software used by the Hub.

e-GIF

e-Government Interoperability Framework. This sets out the UK government's technical policies and specifications for achieving interoperability across the public sector.

Element

The content of an XML document is divided into elements, and marked-up with text tags around the document's content. Elements may also contain further information within their attributes.

Embedded image

A digital image included as a thumbnail wihin a collection description.

Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

EAD is an international standard for creating archival descriptions in an XML format.

Epithet

When indexing, a descriptive word or phrase may be added to a person's name.

Extent

In an archival description, this provides information about the quantity of materials being described, or the physical space they occupy.

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F

File list

A form of finding aid for an archival collection. This goes into more detail than a collection-level description.

Finding aid

A description of an archival collection. Information about alternatives or additions to the description that appears on the Hub, under the heading 'Other Finding Aids'.

fl.

Abbreviation for 'floruit'. When an indexing term for a proper name requires a date, but if neither the birth nor end date is known to the cataloguer, then the archival material being described can provide a date when its creator 'flourished', in the sense that they were active at that time.

Fonds

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.

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G

Genre/Form

When indexing for an archival description's Access Points, this may be used to provide information about the kind of materials in a collection, using a controlled vocabulary

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H

Handlist

A form of finding aid for an archival collection. This is a list for handy reference.

Held at

In an archival description, this provides the name of the repository where a collection is kept.

Higher-level description

This is a description for an archival collection that provides a general overview of the collection, without going into details of individual items. For a multi-level description, the higher level can be seen as the 'parent' of lower-level descriptions or components .

Holograph

A document in the author's own handwriting.

Hypertext

This refers to the links bewteen documents on the World Wide Web.

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I

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This explains how the archival collection came into the care of the repository.

Indexing

1: The Archives Hub's Cheshire software creates index files for its search process, listing and sorting the text within the descriptions.

2: On the other hand, index terms or keywords are known as Access Points in descriptions on the Archives Hub. These Access points are selected and added by cataloguers to their collection descriptions, using indexing rules and controlled languages.

Interface

How a computer-user can interact with a website, particularly with online search pages.

Interoperability

Allowing different electronic systems to work together. See also e-GIF.

ISAD(G)

International Standard Archival Description (General). An international standard, published by the International Council on Archives, which provides guidance for the generation of archival descriptions.

ISO 639-2

International standard for encoding electronic documents. EAD requires ISO 639-2 3-letter language codes for the languagecode attribute of the <langmaterial> element. Within an EAD description, this provides information about the language or languages of the material in the collection being described.

ISO 8879

International standard for encoding electronic documents. EAD and XML require the ISO 8879 'character entity set', for special characters such as in '£15' or 'née'. See also: Special characters, and Character encoding.

Item-level

In a description of an archival collection, this is the smallest unit of a description, for example with details of a single document, such as a letter, photograph, or report.

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J

JavaScript

A computer-programming language often used by websites. The Archives Hub website makes use of JavaScript to provide easier 'navigation', and the Archives Hub's EAD Editor requires JavaScript to be enabled in a web browser.

JISC

An independent advisory body that supports Higher and Further Education by providing guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support teaching, learning, research and administration. JISC provides funding for the Archives Hub.

JISCmail

The National Academic Mailing List Service. A service designed or the further and higher education and research communities and provided by JISC.

K

L

Language code

An international standard used for EAD archival descriptions. This is a three-letter code to uniquely identify a languge. This is included in a description's Language of Material, and is machine-readable. EAD requires the inclusion of this standard code in addition to naming the language used.

Language of Material

In an archival description, this shows the language (or languages) of the material in the collection being described. For EAD this requires an additional machine-readable version which conforms to an international standard.

LC-NAF

The Name Authority File maintained by the US Library of Congress. This is a list of the preferred form of proper names which may be used to provide Access Points in an archival description.

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

A thesaurus and set of indexing rules which may be used for creating Access Points for an archival description.

Linux

A computer 'operating system', commonly used by 'web server' computers for processing and publishing on the World Wide Web.

Lower-level description

For an archival description, this is information in addition to the broader overview or higher level description. The amount of detail may depend on how the archiival collection is organized into groupings or levels. See also subfonds, series, item-level.

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M

Machine-readable

EAD collection descriptions on the Archives Hub include content that is readable as part of a webpage, but EAD also requires an additional alternative version of some parts of the text, that is in a format designed for interoperability and for the Archives Hub's Cheshire search software - content designed for computers rather than for people to read. For examaple, normalised dates have a nurmerical format, while ordinary dates may be written in any style. See also Language of Material.

Machine-to-Machine interface (M2M)

This refers to communication systems for sharing information between computerised systems, rather than viewing information in individual webpages.

MARC-AMC

MARC Format for Archival and Manuscripts Control. An international bibliographic standard for electronic archival descriptions. MARC stands for 'Machine-readable Cataloguing'.

Markup

This is used for the 'encoding' that is added to the content of an XML document such as an EAD description or a web page. Mark-up itself is only text.

Metadata

Machine-processable information about (digital and non-digital) resources. Typically for the Hub we refer to the descriptions of the archive collections as metadata, but it can encompass any information relating to resources, around life-cycle, tecnical details, relations, etc.

METS

Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard. This is an international standard for encoding and sharing metadata using XML.

Mimas

A nationally designated data centre, hosting some of the UK's research information assets. Based at The University of Manchester. Mimas provides facilities and support for the Archives Hub.

Multi-level

A collection description may go into more detail than a general overview. Some descriptions include information at lower levels of organisation, right down to the level of individual items. These are known as multi-level descriptions. See also subfonds, item-level.

N

Name of Creator

In an archival description, this is the name of the individual or individuals, family, or organisation that is responsible for the creation or the accumulation of the materials in the collection being described..

National Archives

See TNA

NCA Rules

The UK National Council on Archives developed this standard for creating Access Points for names in an archival description.

Newsfeed

Newsfeeds (or news feeds) use RSS to let you know when the content of a website has been updated. The Archives Hub has newsfeeds for details of latest descriptions added to the website, and for our Collections of the Month features.

Normalised Date

A machine-readable date format, based on an international standard. This information is used by the archives Hub's Cheshire software for searching dates.

NRA

National Register of Archives. The NRA is maintained by the The National Archives and contains information on the nature and location of manuscripts and historical records in the UK.The NRA also maintains Name Authority Files, a list of names in their preferred form which may be used to provide Access Points in an archival description.

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O

OAI-PMH

Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. This is an international standard for sharing metadata between computer systems. .

Organization

This includes information about how the archival material has been organised, particularly if the description includes a hierarchy of subdivisions, such as subfonds. This is not the same as the System of Arrangement, which would describe, for example, a filing scheme used within a particular subdivision

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P

PDF

Portable Document Format. This is used for creating electronic documents for the World Wide Web which maintain the original appearance and formatting of the original document but are widely accessible by many different computer 'operating systems'. PDF files may be created using XML and XSLT.

Permissions

These set the level of access to files on a computer, particularly on a 'web server'. For example, web pages are usually available to anyone with access to the World Wide Web, but only particular individuals with appropriiate permissions will be able to edit or delete these web pages.

Persistent Unique Identifier

The Archives Hub's Cheshire 3 software provides a permanent web address for an archival description on the Archives Hub. This can be used by anyone wishing to link to the description, and it will be maintained over time.

Physical Characteristics

For an archival description, this provides details of the material in the archival collection, regarding the appearance of the materials, or any physical qualities which might affect the accessibility or usability of the materials.

Plain Text

Plain text is independent from programs that include their own markup. To create plain text use Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac). Microsoft Word does not create plain text because it adds encoding and formatting.

Preferred Citation

For an archival description, this provides the recommended form of words for identifying a collection when referring to it in a bibliography or other formal document.

Processing Information

For an archival description, details may be provided under this heading about how the archival materials have been stored, preserved, or arranged, or how their description has been prepared.

Provenance

For an archival description, details are usually provided about the 'chain of ownership' of the materials in a collection. These details appear under the headings Custodial History and Immediate Source of Acquisition.

Publication Note

In an archival description, this provides details of publications which are based on, or written about, material in the collection, or which may be of value to researchers using the collection.

Python

A computer programming language used by the Archives Hub's Cheshire 3 software.

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R

RDF

Resource Description Framework. An XML application for exchanging metadata.

Record

The documents within an archival collection may be known as records. Archival descriptions in the Archives Hub's database are also known as records.

Red Hat

A computer 'operating system' based on Linux and sometimes used by Spokes for the Archives Hub's Cheshire 3 software.

Reference Code

Each archival collection described on the Archives Hub has a unique 'code' to identify it, whether a name or a sequence of numbers, or a combination of both. This term usually only applies to the code chosen by a repository to identify a particular collection, but may sometimes refer to a combination of the collection's identifier, and the repository's ARCHON code and country code.

Related Units of Description

In an archival description, details are provided under this heading about materials which are not part of the archival collection being described, but which may be useful to you. This might include material which is held by another repository.

Repository

This is the archives, library, or special collections, where an archival collection is stored. See also ARCHON.

REST-ful

This describes a particular application that uses XML for communication between Web Services.

Revisions

In an archival description, details of amendments or updates to the description itself are included under this heading.

RSS

RDF Site Summary, or Rich Site Summary. This is an XML application for producing newsfeeds.

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S

s.d.

'Sine die', without a date. Sometimes used by cataloguers when the date of creation has not been indicated or is not known.

s.l.

'Sine loco', without place. Sometimes used by cataloguers when the place of publication has not been indicated or is not known.

Schema

An XML document defining a set of rules for creating a particular kind of XML document. See also DTD.

Scope and Content

This summarises the range of the materials being described, allowing you to judge the potential relevance of the archival collection. This should provide a general overview of the subjects covered, and highlight significant individuals, organisations, or events represented in the collection.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Techniques for improving a website's ranking or 'visibility' in search engine results.

Semantic Web

Based on XML, this involves developing new standards for identifying and sharing information on the World Wide Web.

Series

In an archival description this may refer to materials grouped together because they are of a similar type or because they were originally arranged together. See also System of Arrangement, Lower-level description.

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol. Based on XML and used for Web Services.

Special characters

Special characters are those characters not easily available on a standard English-language keyboard, those beyond the 128 characters of the US-ASCII character code set. These include characters with diacritics (á, ü, etc.), and special symbols such as the copyright sign (©). See also ISO 8879, and Character encoding.

SPECTRUM

An international standard for electronic cataloguing or metadata in museums, creating XML documents, and also for managing museum collections.

Spoke

The Archives Hub's Cheshire 3 software means that our contributors can chose to maintain and manage their EAD descriptions on their institution's own 'web server' and at the same time make them available for searching on the Archives Hub. An individual repository can then make their descriptions available through their own website with their own interface.

Sponsor

In an archival description, this provides details of the individual or organisation who has financed the acquisition or processing of the collection being described, or who has supported the description of the collection, if this other than the repository where the collection is held.

SRU

Search/Retrieve via URL. A standard for searching on the World Wide Web.

SRW

Search/Retrieve Web Service. A Web Service for searcing, using SOAP.

Stylesheet

Stylesheets are used for setting the appearance and formatting of documents presented on the World Wide Web. See also XSLT.

Subfonds

In an archival description, this provides more detailed information than the general overview of a higher-level or fonds-level description, but not yet with details of individual items. A subfonds refers to a subdivision in the archival material - for example, one subfonds might be a large group of documents created by an administrative subdivision of an organisation.

Subject

In an archival description, the link here leads to a list of other collections which also include the same Subject in their Access Points section. A Subject is a particular topic or theme, rather than the name of a person, family, organisation, or place.

Subject Finder

One of the ways to search the descriptions on the Archives Hub. This online form searches for descriptions with Access Points relevant to your search.

System of Arrangement

In an archival description, this provides information on the physical or logical ordering of the material in the collection being described. The material may, for example, be arranged alphabetically by title, in date order, or by some classification scheme. This should include details of any changes to original the arrangement made by the archivist.

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T

Tag

Used in EAD and other XML mark-up languages. The content of each XML element is included within a pair of appropriate mark-up tags, which take the form of the element's name between a pair of angle brackets.

Tag library

List of XML elements for a particular DTD or Schema, showing the 'start' tag for each element, and describing the contexts where these elements can be used.

TEI

Text Encoding Initiative. A standard for encoding and mark-up of text documents in XML.

TGM

TGM II: Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms. A thesaurus and one of the indexing conventions preferred by the Archives Hub, used when cataloguers add Access Points to their descriptions.

TGN

Thesaurus of Geographical Names, also known as the Getty Thesaurus. The TGN is useful as a source for the current, English-language form of place names, which is helpful when cataloguers are adding Access Points to their descriptions.

Thesaurus

A controlled vocabulary. Cataloguers often use a thesaurus such as UKAT or the Unesco Thesaurus when selecting Access Points for their descriptions.

Thumbnail

A small version of a digital image, generally used as a link to a larger version.

The National Archives

See TNA

TNA

The National Archives. The official archive of the UK Government, the TNA also maintains a central national archive for England and Wales. The TNA provides information about individual collections - and collections held by other repositories - through the NRA. The TNA also maintains information about other repositories through its ARCHON directory.

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U

UDDI

Universal Description, Discovery and Integration. A standard for Web Services.

UKAT

The UK Archival Thesaurus, a controlled vocabulary which has been created for the archive sector in the UK. One of the indexing resources preferred by the Archives Hub, used when cataloguers add Access Points to their descriptions.

Unesco Thesaurus

A controlled vocabulary developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), and commonly used in UK archives. One of the indexing resources preferred by the Archives Hub, used when cataloguers add Access Points to their descriptions.

Unix

A computer 'operating system', commonly used by 'web server' computers for processing and publishing on the World Wide Web.

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W

Web Services

A Web Service is a software system designed to support interoperable, machine-to-machine interactions over the Internet.

Weeding

This is one of the ways by which an archival collection may be organised. Often an archivist may decide to remove duplicate or damaged documents from a collection, and they would usually include details of this process in their archival description.

Wildcards

A 'wildcard' is a symbol or character used to stand for several characters when using a search form. When using the Archives Hub's Advanced Search form [link], you can use an asterisk as a wildcard. For example, 'wom*n' will retrieve both 'women' and 'woman', and 'rail*' will retrieve 'railways', 'railwaymen', and 'railroads'.

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X

XLink

XML Linking Language. An XML application used for the description of links within XML documents.

XML

Extensible Markup Language. An international standard, XML provides set of rules for 'encoding' electronic documents. XML combines text and additional information about the text, by adding markup. This markup usually contains information about the document's structure. The XML application EAD is used for creating collection descriptions for the Archives Hub.

XSLT

Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations. This is an XML application used for the transformation of XML documents into other XML documents. The original document is not changed; instead a new document is created based on the content of the existing one, but in another format. For example, the EAD used to create an archival description for the Hub is transformed into a web page by the Hub's Cheshire sofware when search results are displayed on the Hub website.

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Z

Z39.50

An international standard or ' protocol' allowing direct connections between databases. The Archives Hub has been developed for searching through the Z39.50 protocol, which means that it can be cross-searched along with other compatible databases.

A : B : C : D : E : F : G : H : I : J : K : L : M : N : O : P : Q : R : S : T : U : W : X : Y : Z :