A guide to using archival sources

Archival language

Original order:The organization of archival materials as established by the creator of the records.

Provenance:The person, family, or organization that created or received the items in a fonds; the origin of the records that form an archival fonds.

Arrangement: The process of organizing materials within a fonds with respect to their provenance and original order.

Description: The recording of information about the nature, structure and content of the records. Description is the process of creating a finding-aid that facilitates access to archival fonds. The Rules for Archival Description is the standard used in Canada to describe records.

File: (1) A level of description. (2) An organized unit of documents, usually within a series, brought together because they relate to the same subject, activity, or transaction.

Finding aids: A document containing detailed information about a collection of records, including the content, subjects, dates, formats, and significance of the documents, used by researchers to determine whether items in the collection are relevant to their research.

Fonds: All of the records naturally accumulated (created or received) by a particular person, organization, or family as a by-product of business or day-to-day activities, reflecting the functions of the creator and organized in hierarchical structure based on how the records were used.

Item:The unit that represents the smallest intellectual entity within a fonds.

Series: (1) A unit of archival description. (2) Documents arranged systematically or maintained as a unit because they relate to a particular function or subject, result from the same activity, have a particular form.

Sous-fonds: A subdivision of a fonds based on the structure of the creator or the organization of its activity.

Sub-series: A grouping of documents separately identifiable within a series by reason of form or organization which issue from the accomplishment of one activity of a creator.