Glossary

Archival terms and concepts are defined in many related standards (e.g. ISO 16175, ISO 17068 ISO 15489, ISO 14721, ISO 16363), many of which are not consistent with each other. We do not intend to create a new set of definitions; on the other hand, we would like to use the archival terms consistently throughout the reference architecture documents. So, in the Glossary, we explain the intended meaning of the most important or most ambiguous terms.

Archive and Archiving

In professional terminology, Archive can mean either a physical repository, a set of (archived) information or an (archival) organisation. The E-ARK Reference Architecture uses the term Archive to refer to any group of people and associated infrastructure which implements long-term digital accessibility measures. As such, an Archive can be anything from a single person to specific large archival organisations.

Accordingly, the term Archiving refers to the processes carried out by the Archive, which can be implemented either as small functional components or processes within larger information environments, as a specific large-scale digital preservation infrastructure or anything in between.

Information versus Data

Information is considered to be the main asset of archiving. The word information is used whenever the archived content and its technical and business context are referred to. Data is only used when we refer to the technical aspects and the content bitstreams and files managed by archiving.

Archival information versus archived information

The term archival information refers to any data element or piece of information anywhere throughout the entire archival process from pre-ingest to access. On the other hand, archived information only referred to data elements or pieces of information already stored in an archival repository (e.g. in an Archival Information Package).

Available versus Retrievable versus Accessible versus Usable

These terms are not easy to differentiate. They are synonyms in everyday language but used in very specific meanings in several standards. Unfortunately, these particular meanings are inconsistent in those documents. We have decided to use them in the following sense:

If available, then data in its purest sense are there. If you have methods and tools, you can retrieve them. If it is available and retrievable, then the information is accessible if you have the proper rights to access it (or, in general, if one could have the rights to access it). Finally, information is only usable if you can view and interpret it along with its context.

Trustworthiness versus Reliability versus Integrity versus Authenticity

One of the critical aspects of any archive is to ensure that the information it keeps can be trusted. More specifically, the E-ARK Reference Architecture understands Trustworthiness as a quality of both the Archive and the Information it holds.

For Archives, Trustworthiness is about carrying out their processes in a controlled and repeatable fashion.

For Information, Trustworthiness does have the sub-characteristics of reliability, authenticity and accuracy (https://interparestrust.org/terminology/term/trustworthiness):