Information Management

Access Restrictions
A limitation on the use of a body of records imposed by the creating body, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act or other legislation or regulations, and enforced by Records Coordinators and the University Archives. Restrictions may limit the use of records for a time to particular persons or classes of persons, or may exclude all potential users for a period of time.

Accession
The act and procedures involved in a transfer of legal title and the taking of records into the physical custody of an archives. A body of records acquired at one time from a single source.

Accrual
An acquisition of archival material which belongs to a fonds that is already in the custody of the repository.

Acquisition
An addition to the holdings of an archival repository by transfer, deposit, purchase, gift or bequest.

Active Records
Records which are referred to relatively often and which should be readily accessible in the office area. Also called current records.

Administrative Value
The usefulness of records to the originating office for the conduct of current business.

Appraisal
The process of determining the archival value and disposition of records based on their former administrative, legal and fiscal use; their evidential and informational value; their arrangement; and their realationship to other records. A value which justifies the permanent preservation of records by an archival agency. Also called historical, permanent, or enduring value.

Arrangement
The organization of archival materials according to accepted archival principles and practices.
Collection

(a) An artificial accumulation of documents of any provenance, brought together on the basis of some common characteristic (eg. subject, theme, or media), that may be described as a unit under a common title. The person or body that accumulated a collection is the collector.

(b) Commonly used in singularity or plural form to refer to the total holdings of a repository.

Creating Unit
University unit which creates and receives a particular body of records while carrying out its mandate. Denotes responsibility and ownership of a body of records.

Creator
The individual, family or corporate body that creates and uses, or receives and uses, archival materials.

Custody
The guardianship of archival records which preferably includes both physical possession (protective responsibility) and legal title (legal responsibility).

Description
The recording of information in a standardized form about the strucutre, function and content of archival materials. The Canadian standard for description is the Rules for Archival Description (RAD).

Ephemera
Materials, usually printed documents, created for a specific, limited purpose, and generally designed to be discarded after use. Examples include advertisements, tickets, brochures, and receipts.

Evidential Value
The value of the records of a particular individual, family, organization or corporate body necessary to provide an authentic and adequate documentation of its organization and functioning.

Finding Aid
A list prepared by the University Archives describing the records held in the Archives, their arrangement and location. The finding aid is sent to each client to assist in future reference of their records stored in the University Archives.

Fiscal Value
The usefulness or significance of records containing financial information that is necessary to conduct current or future business or that serves as evidence of financial transactions.

Fonds
The whole of the documents, 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. The fonds is the highest level of a multi-level description.

Inactive Records
Records that are referred to relatively infrequently but have been deemed worthy of permanent preservation in archival storage. Also called non-current records, or archival records.

Informational Value
The value of a record that provides unique and permanent information for the purposes of research.

Legal Value
The usefulness or significance of records to document and protect the rights and interests of an individual or organization, to provide for defence in litigation, to demonstrate compliance with laws and regulations, or to meet other legal needs.

Master Records Retention Schedule (MaRRS)
An authoritative document containing records retention rules which indicate the length of time records are to be maintained in office areas or semi-active storage area, and whether they will be permanently preserved in the University Archives or destroyed.

Monetary Appraisal
The evaluation of records to determine their financial value based on current fair market value. Such appraisal is relevant to private records offered for donation to the University Archives.

Non-Record
Published materials made or acquired for reference, and stocks of publications or forms. These materials should not be classified according to UCLASS, but placed in a reference storage area.

Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR)
The office or offices which have the main responsibility for a function or activity, and whose records best reflect that function or activity.

Office of Secondary Responsibility (OSR)
The office or offices which do not have the main responsibility for a function or activity, but whose administrative needs require a particular retention period for a series of records.

Original Order
The principle that an archivist retains the arrangement within a fonds as established by its creator.

Primary
Each functional block of the University Classification System (UCLASS) is subdivided into a number of primary subjects or headings, each of which are based on a University process or activity which fulfils or supports the function represented by the block. The primary headings correspond to groups of records, called record series, which are produced by the specific activity.

Primary Value
Value of the record to the record creator. Examples of primary values are administrative value, legal value and fiscal value.

Provenance
The person(s), family (families) or corporate body (bodies) that created and/or accumulated and used records in the conduct of personal or business life. The principle of provenance states that records of the same provenance should not be inter-filed with those of any other provenance.

Record
Documents, in any form including paper, electronic, microform, audio and video tape, and photographic form, made or received by an institution according to law or its particular mandate and preserved by it as evidence or information.

Records Centre
A facility used for low-cost storage of inactive and semi-active records before those records are destroyed or transferred to an archives.

Records Destruction Review Form
A form which reviews a Specific Retention Rule for records held by Office(s) of Primary Responsibility, and gives approval for destruction or requests an extension or stay in the destruction of the series. The form also includes a Certificate of Destruction which must be signed by personnel when records are shipped from one location to another or destroyed.

Records Retention Rule
An authoritative document which indicates the period of time that records must be retained according to their value to the University and the ultimate disposal of records either by destruction or transfer to the University Archives. Schedules apply to all records including paper and electronic records, microforms, audio and video tapes, and photographs.

Record Series
Groups of related records which are normally used and filed as a unit, and which permit evaluation as a unit for retention scheduling purposes.

Records Transfer Form
A form which facilitates the transfer of records to a semi-active storage area or University Archives for storage. This form is always attached to a File List of records to be transferred and must be completed and signed by the client prior to any transfer.

Respect des fonds
The principle that the records of a person, family or corporate body must be kept together in their original order, if it exists, and not be combined with the records of another individual or corporate body.

Retention Period
The period of time that records must be retained according to their value to the University.

Rules for Archival Description (RAD)
The Canadian standard for archival description.

Secondary Value
Value of the records to others than the creator. Examples are evidential value and informational value.

Semi-Active Records
Records which are not accessed regularly or often but which must be retained for administrative, legal or financial reasons. Semi-active records are efficiently stored in semi-active storage spaces such as a Records Centre.

University Classification System (UCLASS)
The University Classification System organizes the records of University administrative units and departments into a classification structure based on the University’s functions or areas of responsibility, and activities which serve to carry out these functions. These large functional areas, or blocks, are subdivided into primary subjects or headings, each of which are based on a University process or activity. Each primary is subdivided into secondary headings under which are classified volumes of records that are the tangible result or evidence of actions and transactions which fulfil or support the activity represented by the primary.