Appendix A - Society of American Archivists

Date(s) of reproduction The date(s) that the unit being described was copied to anothersupport.Description The creation of an accurate representation of a unit of archival material bythe process of capturing, collating, analyzing, and organizing information that serves toidentify archival material and explain the context and records system(s) that produced it.Descriptive record A representation of a unit being described.Descriptive unit A document or aggregation of documents in any physical form, treatedas an entity and forming the basis of a single description.Discrete item An individual item that is not part of a larger body of materials.Document Recorded information irrespective of medium. See also Record.Electronic records Data or information that has been captured or encoded and fixed forstorage and manipulation in a computer system and that requires the use of the system torender it intelligible by a person.Entity The corporate body, person, or family associated with the creation, assembly,accumulation, maintenance, and/or use of archival materials.File 1. An organized unit of documents grouped together either for current use by thecreator or in the process of archival arrangement because they relate to the same subject,activity, or transaction. 2. A level of description.Finding aid A representation of, or a means of access to, archival materials made orreceived by a repository in the course of establishing administrative or intellectual controlover the archival materials.Fonds 1. The whole of the documents, regardless of form or medium, automatically andorganically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular person, family, orcorporate body in the course of that creator's activities and functions. 2. In somedescriptive systems, a level of description.Form 1. The physical (e.g., watercolor, drawing) or intellectual (e.g., diary, journal,daybook, minute book) characteristics of a document. 2. A printed document with clearlydefined areas left blank that are to be completed later. 3. The materials and structure ofan item; format. 4. The overall appearance, configuration, or shape, independent of itsintellectual content. 5. A style or convention for expressing ideas in a literary work ordocument; documentary form, including extrinsic and intrinsic elements.Formal title A title that appears prominently on or in the material being described.236 DESCRIBING ARCHIVES: A CONTENT STANDARD