The use of records, papers and collections for the purpose of viewing and understanding their contents, as a way of furthering research, or for simple personal knowledge of facts.

Restrictions on access to records which are exercised for reasons stipulated by legislation, or for reasons of format and/or the physical preservation of the records to which access has been requested.

A user's formal request to view documents or obtain access to their orwn personal information in the custody or control of an institution through channels created by legislation or policy.

The review of information initiated by a user's request for access to documents by an official appointed for that purpose.

    Direct transfer

    Scheduled transfer

1.  (v.) The act and procedures involved in formally accepting and recording the physical and legal

     transfer of material into the custody of an archives.

2.  (n.) A body of material from the same donor taken into archival custody at the same time.  This

     acquisition may occur through gift, donation with tax appraisal, purchase, copy loan, or direct or

     scheduled transfer.

Transfer to the Archives of unscheduled discontinued series of archival records or archival records (usually old) that are not part of any existing records series.

The transfer to an Archives of those records previously determined by the records scheduling

process to have permanent value.

Records which continue to be maintained in their place of origin and are regularly used for the conduct of the current business of an agency, institution, or organization.

1. The process of determining the value and thus the disposition of documents based upon their

    current administrative, legal and fiscal value; their arrangement; their medium and format; their

    condition and future preservation; their accessibility and their relationship to other documents.
2. The monetary evaluation of documents.

The determination, through appraisal, that documents are worthy of indefinite or permanent preservation by an archives due to their administrative, fiscal, legal, evidential, and/or informational value.

1. An institution responsible for the appraisal, acquisition, preservation, and provisions of access

    to archival documents.

2. A building or part of a building in which archival materials are preserved and made available for

    consultation.

3. see Fonds.

The intellectual and physical operations involved in the analysis and organization of records.  Based upon the principle of provenance, and especially the principle of original order, the purpose of arrangement is to group the components of a fonds into an order which reflects the system by which the documents were originally created and used.  Such a system will
    (i) reflect the structure and/or functions of the creator;
   (ii) show relationships between records; and
  (iii) demonstrate the original meaning and significance of the documents.

If no original order is evident, then an order based upon other criteria (such as functions, or alphabetical, chronological, geographical, or subject order) may be used.  Arrangement may be carried out at all or any of the following levels: repository, fonds, series, file unit, or item.

A file with restrictions relating to access, as distinct from an open file.

An artificial accumulation of documents of any provenance brought together on the basis of some common characteristic, e.g., way of acquisition, subject, language, medium, type of document, name of collector, to be treated for description purposes as a descriptive unit under a common title.

A file containing the essential physical, administrative, and intellectual control documentation for a fonds, sous-fonds, or university record series.  It serves as a permanent record of archival management.

The person or corporate body that put together a collection.

The power or authority to make a decision about the use or disclosure of the record.

The exclusive right, granted by law, of the creator of a work (or his/her assignees or employers) to make or dispose of copies and otherwise to control the use of a literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, or other work. The Copyright Act in Canada is not concerned with ideas or the originality of ideas; it is the language or the expression of the idea which is the subject matter of copyright.

An organization or group of persons that is identified by a particular name and that acts, or may act, as an entity. Typical examples of coproprate bodies are associations, institutions, business firms, nonprofit enterprises, governments, government agencies, religious bodies, local churches, and conferences.

See Provenance.

The history of the custody of the material being described, i.e., its successive transfers of ownership and custody.  See also Provenance and Respect des fonds.

The keeping, care, watch, preservation or security of a record.  While physical possession of a record may not always constitute custody, it is the best evidence of custody.

A formal act which allows an institution to remove permanently from its holdings items deemed no longer to be of archival value, or within the repository's acquisitions mandate or responsibilities.

The process of recording information about the nature and content of the records in archival custody. The description identifies such features as provenance, extent, arrangement, format, and contents, and presents them in a standardized form.

A publication which lists the general classes of records, manuals, and personal information banks maintained by institutions subject to the FOI/Privacy Act.

The release of records in the custody and control of an institution.

An exception to the general right of access to records which permits the head of an institution to disclose a record despite the existence of the exception.

Actions taken with regard to inactive records once the expiration of their retention period has taken place in accordance with legislative, regulatory, or administrative requirement.  As agreed to on the records schedule for records, or following appraisal, the actions may include transfer to a Records Centre for temporary storage, transfer to an Archives, donation to an elibible repository, reproduction on microfilm, and destruction.

The value of the records of an institution or oganization in providing evidence of the institution's origins, structure, functions, procedures, and significant transactions, as distinct from the informational value of the records.

An excepted record contains information that has been reviewed and currently qualifies for exception under the FOI/Privacy Act.

A specific and limited exception to the general right of access to records in the custody and control of institutions because of information contained in them.

Descriptive tools, e.g., registers, guides, inventories, indexes, containing information about records in archival custody, that establish administrative, physical, or intellectual control over the holdings of an archives, and make it possible to retrieve particular records or information from these archives.

The whole of the records, regardless of form or medium, automatically and organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular individual, family, or corporate body in the course of that creator's activities or functions.
Note: The fonds is the highest level of description in a multilevel description in a particular repository. For the purposes of these rules, that part of a fonds that is actually present in the repository is what is described at the fonds level of description. A fonds is not equivalent to an accession. A fonds may contain two or more accession units; similarly, an accession may contain more than one fonds.

Freedom of Infor- 
   mation Coordinator

An official of a public institution holding public records appointed to administer and coordinate the institution's access operations and services required by legislation or policy.

The official of an institution responsible for decisions made under the legislation on behalf of the institution, and for overseeing the administration of the legislation within the institution.

1. Records no longer needed for current business.
2. A series of records with a reference rate of less than one search per file drawer per month,

    or less than 15 times a year.

The administration of information, its uses and transmission, and the application of theories and techniques of information science to create, modify, or improve information handling systems.

The general term used for government ministries, agencies, boards and other bodies subject to the FOI/Privacy Act.  An institution is responsible for administering and adhering to the requirements of the legislation.

The control established over the informational content of a body of material, resulting from ascertaining and documenting its provenance and from the processes of arrangement and description.

An exception to the general right of access to records which imposes a duty on the head of an institution not to disclose a record.

A record which combines two or more media types but which, for reasons of intellectual continuity, must be conceived of as a single entity (e.g., a slide tape program).

Recorded information about an identifiable individual.  Certain types of personal information are defined in the FOI/Privacy Act.  Personal information does not include information about an individal who has been dead for more than twenty years or that is contained in a records more than 100 years old.

Personal information

   bank  (PIB)

A collection of personal information that is organized and capable of being retrieved using an individual's name or an identifying number or some other personal identifier.

All actions taken to retard deterioration of, or to prevent damage to, cultural property.  Preservation involves controlling the environment and conditions of use, and may include treatment in order to maintain an object, as nearly as possible, in an unchanging state.

1. (v.) A collective term referring to the series of activities required to gain intellectual control of

    records, papers, or collections, including: accessioning, arrangement, culling, boxing, labelling,

    description, and preservation.
2. (v.) In photography, the chemical treatment of exposed film to induce the latent image to ermerge.
3. (v.) With respect to automated records, the inputting of data into a data bank so that the data

    may be manipulated and called forth to serve a variety of needs.

The counter-balancing concept of privacy protection provides that public institutions should protect the privacy of individuals with respect to information about themselves held by institutions, and that individuals have a right of access to their own personal information.

The person(s) or office(s) of origin of records, i.e., the person(s), family (families), or corporate body (bodies) that created and/or accumulated and used records in the course of that creator's activities or functions.  See also Custodial history and Respect des fonds.

Information that is recorded or stored by graphic, electronic, mechanical or other means.

Any document(s) created in the course of University activity that is recorded evidence of that activity; such as a letter, memorandum, report, computer database file, electronic mail, audio recording (voice message), video tape or film, photograph, map, drawing and any other thing on which information is recorded or stored.

Managing the life cycle of the record by appraising the records values and setting the standards by which records are retained and disposed of.  There are 3 distinct phases in a record's life cycle:

1. The time at which a record is created or received and is of immediate administrative, fiscal or

    legal value and use to the office of origin in conducting university activities;

2. The 2nd phase is the point at which records have ongoing value and use but are no longer

    referred to on a regular basis;

3. The last phase in the life cycle is the point in time at which records have no further operational

    value to the office of record and are disposed of either by destroying them or transferring them

    to the University Archives where they are preserved for their archival value.

A building, usually specially designed and constructed, for the low-cost storage, maintenance, and referencing of semi-active records pending their ultimate disposal, and for housing and servicing inactive records.

A corrugated cardboard box usually one cubic foot in volume and used chiefly to hold records in records centres.

A legal document describing the recurring record series of an agency, institution or administrative unit, specifying those records to be preserved for their archival value, and authorizing on a continuing basis the destruction of the remaining records after the lapse of a specified retention period or the occurrence of specified actions or events.

A legal document which allows resarchers to gain complete access to personal information banks and general records, subject to certain confidentiality terms and conditions.

The principle that the records of a person, family or corporate body must be kept together in their original order, if it exists or has been maintained, and not be mixed or combined with the records of another individual or corporate body.  See also Custodial history and Provenance.

The conditions governing access to all or part of the material being described, including any laws, regulations, policies, donor terms, or any other relevant access conditions.

The length of time, usually based upon an estimate of the frequency of current and future use, that records should be retained in an office before they are transferred to a Records Centre, or transferred to the Archives or otherwise disposed of.

1. The search for, and presentation of, archival material in response to a specific user request.

2. The search for, and presentation of, a semi-active file in response to a specific user/department

    request.

Records required so infrequently in the conduct of current business (about twice a month or less) that they should be transferred from offices to a Records Centre or other holding area, pending their ultimate disposition.

Series -- Archives



Series -- Printed

     materials  

1. Archives: A subdivision of a fonds maintained as an entity because the documents relate to a

    particular function or subject, result from the same activity, have a particular form, or because

    of some other relationship arising out of the circumstances of their creation or use.
2. Printed materials:

   (a) a group of separate items related to one another by the fact each item bears, in addition to

        its own title proper, a collective title applying to the group as a whole. The individual items

        may or may not be numbered;
   (b) each of two or more volumes of essays, lectures, articles, or other writings, similar in

        character and issued in sequence;       
   (c) a separately numbered sequence of volumes within a series or serial.

A policy of severing excepted information from records requested by users and of making the remainder of the record available.

A body of related records within a fonds, usually consisting of the records of an important subordinate administrative unit or family unit. Sous fonds may also be established for related bodies of documents within a fonds that can best be defined in terms of chronological, functional, or geographical relationships.  Sous fonds may be divided into as many further levels as are necessary to reflect the hierarchical organizational units within the subordinate administrative unit, or that will assist in grouping series in terms of their relationships.

Unscheduled record

Record for which no ultimate disposition has been determined.