This glossary is based in part on and draws several definitions from A Basic Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators, and Records Managers,” compiled by Frank B. Evans, Donald F. Harrison, and Edwin A. Thompson (The American Archivist 37 [July 1974]: 415-433). Some definitions are from ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter, Sixth Edition Revised by Nicolas Barker, London: Granada, 1972.

• ACCESS The archival term for authority to obtain information from or to perform research in archival materials.
• ACCESSION (v.) To transfer physical and legal custody of documentary materials to an archival institution. (n.) Materials transferred to an archival institution in a single accessioning action.
• ACCRETION An addition to an accession.
• ACQUISITION The process of identifying and acquiring, by donation or purchase, historical materials from sources outside the archival institution.
• ADMINISTRATIVE VALUE The value of records for the ongoing business of the agency of records creation or its successor in function.
• APPRAISAL The process of determining whether documentary materials have sufficient value to warrant acquisition by an archival institution.
• ARCHIVAL INSTITUTION An institution holding legal and physical custody of noncurrent documentary materials determined to have permanent or continuing value. Archives and manuscriptrepositories are archival institutions.
• ARCHIVAL VALUE The value of documentary materials for continuing preservation in an archival institution.
• ARCHIVES
  1. The noncurrent records of an organization or institution preserved because of their continuing value.
  2. The agency responsible for selecting, preserving, and making ailable records determined to have permanent or continuing value.
  3. The building in which an archival institution is located.
• ARCHIVES ADMINISTRATION The professional management of an archival institution through application of archival principles and techniques.
• ARCHIVIST The professional staff member within an archival institution responsible for any aspect of the selection, preservation, or use of archival materials.
• ARRANGEMENT The archival process of organizing documentary materials in accordance with archival principles.
• AUDIOTAPES Sound recordings, usually either on cassette or open-reel media
• AUTOGRAPH In our world it is an adjective (and is better not used as a noun). It is applied to a manuscript, a letter or a document, either in the hand of, and preferably signed by, the author of one’s choice, or on the subject of one’s choice; or annotations in books, whether signed or not. ABC
• BROADSIDE or BROADSHEET A large sheet of paper printed on one side only. ABC
• COLLECTING POLICY A policy established by an archival institution concerning subject areas, time periods, and formats of materials to seek for donation or purchase. Collection policy for manuscripts can be found at:
• COLLECTION (1) An artificial accumulation of materials devoted to a single theme, person, event, or type of document acquired from a variety of sources. (2) In a manuscript repository, a body of historical materials relating to an individual, family, or organization.
• COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT The process of building an institution’s holdings of historical materials through acquisition activities.
• CONTINUOUS CUSTODY (1) In contemporary U.S. usage, the archival principle that to guarantee archival integrity, archival materials should either be retained by the creating organization or transferred directly to an archival institution. (2) In British usage, the principle that noncurrent records must be retained by the creating organization or its successor in function to be considered archival.
• COPYEDITED MANUSCRIPTS Manuscripts that have been corrected for grammatical and spelling errors, usually not by the author.
• CUBIC FEET (or METERS) A standard measure of the quantity of archival materials on the basis of the volume of space they occupy.
• DEED OF GIFT A legal document accomplishing donation of documentary materials to an archival institution through transfer of title.
• DEPOSIT AGREEMENT A legal document providing for deposit of historical materials in physical custody of an archival institution while legal title to the materials is retained by the donor. Washington Univesity will not accept new materials using such an agreement.
• DESCRIPTION The process of establishing intellectual control over holdings of an archival institution through preparation of finding aids.
• DISPOSITION The final action that puts into effect the results of an appraisal decision for a series of records. Transfer to an archival institution, transfer to a records center, and destruction are among possible dispositions.
• DOCUMENT Recorded information regardless of form or medium with three basic elements: base, impression, and message.
• DONATED HISTORICAL MATERIALS Historical materials transferred to an archival institution through a donor’s gift rather than in accordance with law or regulation.
• DRAFTS Materials that document the creation of a particular document. The Modern Literature Collection contains numerous drafts towards particular poems, poetry sequences, stories, novels, and other types of literary collections.
• EPHEMERA “Printed matter of passing interest”. It encompasses a wide variety of items including everything from postage stamps to miscellaneous newspaper clippings.
• EVIDENTIAL VALUE The value of records or papers as documentation of the operations and activities of the records-creating organization, institution, or individual.
• FIELD WORK The activity of identifying, negotiating for, and securing historical materials for an archival institution.
• FINDING AID A description from any source that provides information about the contents and nature of documentary materials.
• FORME The forme (or form) is the body of the type, locked by the compositor into a frame called the chase, which makes up whatever number of pages are to be printed at one operation of the press on one side of one sheet. ABC
• GALLEY PROOFS Early PROOFS, pulled on long strips before the type has been locked in the FORME. The galley proofs usually contain the type for about three pages. ABC
• GALLEY Early PROOFS, pulled on long strips before the type has been locked in the FORME. The galley is the printer’s tray. ABC
• HOLDINGS All documentary materials in the custody of an archival institution including both accessioned and deposited materials.
• INFORMATIONAL VALUE The value of records or papers for information they contain on persons, places, subjects, and things other than the operation of the organization that created them or the activities of the individual or family that created them.
• INTERVIEWS Structured series of questions and answers between two people, and interviewer and subject. Typically designed to elicit information about a particular subject from the one interviewed.
• INTRINSIC VALUE The archival term for those qualities and characteristics of permanently valuable records that make the records in their original physical form the only archivally acceptable form of the records.
• JOURNALS Similar to diaries though can have business functions. A sequential record of events, sometimes told in the form of brief entries, sometimes having well developed narrative structure.
• LEAF The basic bibliographical unit: the piece of paper comprising one page on its front side (recto, obverse) and another on its back (verso, reverse). ABC
• LEGAL CUSTODY Ownership of title to documentary materials.
• LIFE CYCLE OF RECORDS The concept that records pass through a continuum of identifiable phases from the point of their creation, through their active maintenance and use, to their final disposition by destruction or transfer to an archival institution or records center.
• LINEAR FEET (or METERS) A standard measure of the quantity of archival materials on the basis of shelf space occupied or the length of drawers in vertical files or the thickness of horizontally filed materials.
• MACHINE-READABLE RECORDS Records created for processing by a computer.
• MANUSCRIPT A handwritten or typed document, including a letterpress or carbon copy, or any document annotated in handwriting or typescript. See also PERSONAL PAPERS
• MANUSCRIPT CURATOR The professional staff member within a manuscript repository responsible for any aspect of the selection, preservation, or use of documentary materials.
• MANUSCRIPT REPOSITORY An archival institution generally responsible for personal papers and manuscripts.
• NAME INDEX A list in a collection description or finding-aid that indicates the person’s name and folder number(s) where it appears.
• NOTEBOOKS A particular format in which any number of drafts or documents might be written.
• ORIGINAL ORDER The archival principle that records should be maintained in the order in which they were placed by the organization, individual, or family that created them.
• PERSONAL PAPERS A natural accumulation of documents created or accumulated by an individual or family belonging to him or her and subject to his or her disposition. Also referred to as MANUSCRIPTS.
• PRIMARY VALUES The values of records for the activities for which they were created or received.
• PROCESSING All steps taken in an archival repository to prepare documentary materials for access and reference use.
• PROOFS First proofs of a book (see also GALLEYS) are provided by the printer for the author’s correction and the publisher’s scrutiny. Revised proofs are the intermediate stage either to final proofs or, if these are dispensed with, to the finished book. The author’s set (or sets) of proofs are apt to carry marginal corrections, additions, etc., in his own hand, varying from a few words to rewritten paragraphs.
• ABC
• PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS Materials generated with with intent of disseminating positive information about a text or event.
• PROSE Literary language that conveys information or narrative without resorting to intential rhyming.
• PROVENANCE (1) The archival principle that records created or received by one recordskeeping unit should not be intermixed with those of any other. (2) Information on the chain of ownership and custody of particular records.
• PUBLISHED WORKS Works that have been printed and distributed for sale to booksellers.
• RECORD COPY The copy of a document which is designated for official retention in files of the administrative unit that is principally responsible for production, implementation, or dissemination of the document.
• RECORD GROUP A body of organizationally related records established on the basis of provenance with particular regard for the complexity and volume of the records and the administrative history of the record-creating institution or organization.
• RECTO The front, or obverse, side of the LEAF; i.e. the right-hand page of an open book or manuscript. Its complement is the VERSO. ABC
• REFERENCE MATERIALS Nonaccessioned items maintained by an archival institution solely for reference use.
• REFERENCE SERVICE The archival function of providing information about or from holdings of an archival institution, making holdings available to researchers, and providing copies, reproductions, or loans of holdings.
• RESPECT DES FONDS See PROVENANCE
• REVERSE The back side, often called the VERSO. ABC
• REVIEW The process of surveying documentary materials in an archival institution to determine whether the materials may be open for access by researchers or must be restricted in accordance with law, a donor’s requirements, or an institution’s regulations.
• SANCTITY OF ORIGINAL ORDER See ORIGINAL ORDER.
• SCHEDULE (v.) To establish retention periods for current records and provide for their proper disposition at the end of active use. (n.) See DISPOSITION SCHEDULE.
• SECONDARY VALUES The values of records to users other than the agency of record creation or its successors.
• SERIES A body of file units or documents arranged in accordance with a unified filing system or maintained by the records creator as a unit because of some relationship arising out of their creation, receipt, or use.
• SUBGROUP A body of related records within a record group, usually consisting of the records of a primary subordinate administrative unit or of records series related chronologically, functionally, or by subject.
• SUBSERIES A subgrouping of materials in a series maintained by the file’s creator for reasons of function creation, receipt, or use.
• TRANSCRIPT Whether it is in the author’s or a copyist’s hand, or typewritten, a transcript implies the copying of something already completed: often, indeed, of something already published. When, for example, a poet writes out a favourite poem for a friend or an admirer, the result (although it is in his AUTOGRAPH) is a transcript, and not an original manuscript in the strict sense. ABC
• TRANSLATIONS Literary texts are often recreated in a language other than the original language in which the text was written. These recreations of the text in a foreign language are translations.
• TYPESCRIPTS There are at least three kinds of typescript to be distinguished, each of which may (and the first two of which almost certainly will) carry additions or corrections from the author’s pen. They are (a) Author’s original typescript: the equivalent of the original manuscript, or first autograph draft. (b) Author’s fair copy typescript: the equivalent, executed by his own fingers, of an autograph manuscript fair copy. (c) Copyist’s typescript: a fair copy executed by another pair of hands. ABC
• VERSO The back or reverse, side of the LEAF; i.e. the left-hand page of an open book or manuscript. Verso is the complement to RECTO. ABC