Archive: A place in which public records or historical materials (such as documents) are preserved.
Library: A collection of published materials, including books, magazines, sound and video recordings, and other formats.
Special Collections: A collection of items, usually in a library, that are either irreplaceable or rare. These items are kept separate from regular library collections.
To learn more:
Visit the Society of American Archivists site to read more about the work of archives and archivists.
Browse this guide about archival research from Washington University Libraries to learn about other types of archives, conducting archival research, and a selection of major archival collections.
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Archival Research: Archival research is research involving primary sources held in an archives, a special collections library, or other repository. Archival sources can be manuscripts, documents, records (including electronic records), objects, sound and audiovisual materials, or other materials.
Artist’s Book: A medium of artistic expression that uses the structure or function of “book” as inspiration—a work of art in book form. Explore the Smithsonian Library's guide to Artists' Books.
Born-Digital: Originating in a digital environment.
Broadside: Sizeable single-sheet notices or advertisements printed on one or both sides, often chiefly textual rather than pictorial, and printed to be read unfolded.
Visit the Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus to read more about visual arts formats.
Collection Guide or Finding Aid: A tool that facilitates discovery of information within a collection of records. A description of records that helps users gain access to and understand a fonds or collection of archival materials.
Digital Surrogate: A digital copy of an analog record.
Duplication: A duplicate made from an original; a copy; a reproduction.
Ephemera: Materials, usually printed documents, created for a specific, limited purpose, and generally designed to be discarded after use.
Facsimile: A reproduction that simulates the appearance of the original as closely as possible.
Fanzine or Zine: A limited-run and usually inexpensively produced serial or standalone publication produced by a single individual or a small cooperative and distributed through the mail, often in exchange for other fanzines.
Fonds: The entire body of records of an organization, family, or individual that have been created and accumulated as the result of an organic process reflecting the functions of the creator.
Incunabulum (plu. incunabula): A book printed before 1501.
Research Guide, also known as a LibGuide or Subject Guide: A broad description of the holdings at one or more archives, typically at the collection level.
Linear Foot (LF): A measurement of 12 inches. In archives, linear feet are often used to measure shelf space or film footage.
Manuscript or Manuscript Collection: A collection of personal or family papers. Although manuscript literally means handwritten, 'manuscript collection' is often used to include collections of mixed media in which unpublished materials predominate. They may also include typescripts, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, news clippings, and printed works.
Non-circulating: Not able to be checked out or removed.
Page/Paging (verb): To retrieve an item from library or archival storage.
Primary Source: Material that contains firsthand accounts of events and that was created contemporaneous to those events or later recalled by an eyewitness.
Process/Archivally Process (verb): To prepare archival materials for use by researchers.
Secondary Source: A work that is not based on direct observation of or evidence directly associated with the subject, but instead relies on sources of information. A work commenting on another work (primary source), such as reviews, criticism, and commentaries.
Stewardship: The responsible management of archival resources.
Most of these definitions are adapted from the Society of American Archivists Dictionary of Archives Terminology.