This glossary explains key terminology used across Business Services / Professional Services, with a focused reference for leaders and practitioners in the Records Management & Document Services Practice. It covers records governance, document capture, storage, retrieval, preservation, privacy, compliance, and secure disposition.
0–9 A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V W X
| 0–9 | |
| 21 CFR Part 11 | Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 11: U.S. requirements governing the trustworthiness, reliability, and equivalence of electronic records and electronic signatures used in Food and Drug Administration-regulated activities. |
| 36 CFR Chapter XII | Title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter XII: U.S. federal regulations administered by the National Archives and Records Administration covering records creation, maintenance, transfer, storage, and disposition. |
| A | |
| ABAC | Attribute-Based Access Control: An authorization method that grants access according to attributes of users, records, devices, and operating conditions. It supports granular controls for sensitive document repositories. |
| ACA | Academy of Certified Archivists: The professional organization that administers the Certified Archivist credential and promotes competency in archival appraisal, arrangement, preservation, and access. |
| ADF | Automatic Document Feeder: A scanner mechanism that feeds batches of pages without manual placement, materially affecting capture throughput, reliability, and document preparation requirements. |
| AES | Advanced Encryption Standard: A widely adopted symmetric encryption standard used to protect stored records, removable media, backups, and document transmissions from unauthorized disclosure. |
| AES | Advanced Electronic Signature: An electronic signature category under European law that is uniquely linked to and capable of identifying the signer while revealing subsequent changes to signed data. |
| AIIM | Association for Intelligent Information Management: A professional association providing education, research, and standards-related guidance on content, documents, records, process automation, and information governance. |
| AIP | Archival Information Package: The preservation package maintained within an Open Archival Information System, combining digital content with the metadata needed to preserve and understand it over time. |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute: The organization that coordinates voluntary consensus standards in the United States, including standards affecting document imaging, information management, media, and archival storage. |
| ARA | Archives and Records Association: A professional body serving archivists, records managers, and conservation specialists in the United Kingdom and Ireland through training, qualifications, and professional guidance. |
| ARK | Archival Resource Key: A persistent identifier designed to provide durable links to digital objects and descriptive records even when storage locations or access systems change. |
| ARMA | ARMA International: A professional association for records management and information governance practitioners that develops principles, educational resources, credentials, and implementation guidance. |
| ASRS | Automated Storage and Retrieval System: Mechanized equipment and software used to place and retrieve stored containers or files, improving records-center density, inventory accuracy, and retrieval speed. |
| B | |
| BCP | Business Continuity Plan: A documented approach for sustaining or restoring critical operations after disruption. Records programs use it to prioritize vital records, repository access, staffing, and alternative retrieval arrangements. |
| BS 10008 | British Standard 10008, Evidential Weight and Legal Admissibility of Electronic Information: A specification for managing electronic information so that its authenticity, integrity, and evidential value can be demonstrated. |
| C | |
| CA | Certified Archivist: A professional credential demonstrating knowledge of archival selection, arrangement, description, preservation, reference services, outreach, and program administration. |
| CAR | Computer-Assisted Retrieval: A legacy micrographics method that uses an electronic index to locate images stored on microfilm or microfiche, often encountered in long-established document archives. |
| CCD | Charge-Coupled Device: An image-sensor technology used in scanners and cameras to convert light into digital image data. Sensor characteristics influence capture quality, color fidelity, and low-light performance. |
| CCITT | Comité consultatif international téléphonique et télégraphique: The former international standards body whose Group 3 and Group 4 compression specifications remain common in monochrome scanned-document and TIFF repositories. |
| CCPA | California Consumer Privacy Act: A California privacy law establishing consumer rights and business obligations affecting how personal information in records is collected, retained, retrieved, disclosed, and deleted. |
| CFR | Code of Federal Regulations: The codification of general and permanent rules issued by U.S. federal agencies. Retention schedules and compliance controls frequently reference specific titles and parts. |
| CIP | Certified Information Professional: An AIIM credential covering information management strategy, content processes, governance, technology, and implementation capabilities relevant to document and records programs. |
| CJIS | Criminal Justice Information Services: A division of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation whose security policy establishes controls for systems, service providers, and facilities handling criminal justice information. |
| CLOCKSS | Controlled Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe: A distributed digital preservation archive that maintains redundant copies of scholarly content and releases preserved material when it is no longer available from its original source. |
| CMIS | Content Management Interoperability Services: An open standard defining interfaces for exchanging content and metadata among enterprise content repositories, reducing dependence on proprietary integrations. |
| CoC | Chain of Custody: Documented evidence of who possessed, transferred, processed, or destroyed records and when. It supports security, accountability, and evidentiary integrity throughout outsourced workflows. |
| CoD | Certificate of Destruction: A service-provider record confirming that specified documents or media were destroyed under an authorized process, typically identifying the date, method, and accountable party. |
| COLD | Computer Output to Laser Disk: A legacy technology for capturing computer-generated reports directly onto optical storage. Many such repositories evolved into enterprise report management platforms. |
| COM | Computer Output Microfilm: A process that records computer-generated data directly onto microfilm or microfiche, still relevant when managing or converting long-retention legacy archives. |
| CPRA | California Privacy Rights Act: Legislation that amended and expanded California privacy requirements, including rights and controls affecting retention, correction, deletion, and use of personal information. |
| CRA | Certified Records Analyst: An Institute of Certified Records Managers credential recognizing foundational competence in records and information management and providing a pathway toward full certification. |
| CRC | Cyclic Redundancy Check: An error-detection calculation used to identify unintended changes in files or transmitted data. It supports integrity checking but is not a substitute for a cryptographic hash. |
| CRM | Certified Records Manager: A professional credential awarded by the Institute of Certified Records Managers for demonstrated knowledge across records lifecycle, governance, technology, legal, and program-management disciplines. |
| CSDS | Certified Secure Destruction Specialist: An i-SIGMA credential for professionals responsible for secure information destruction operations, regulatory compliance, risk controls, and client service. |
| CUI | Controlled Unclassified Information: U.S. government information requiring safeguarding or dissemination controls even though it is not classified. Contractors and repositories must apply specified handling, access, and destruction protections. |
| D | |
| DACS | Describing Archives: A Content Standard: A U.S. archival content standard governing the description of collections and their creators, supporting consistent finding aids and discovery across repositories. |
| DCMI | Dublin Core Metadata Initiative: The organization responsible for a widely used set of interoperable metadata terms for describing resources, including title, creator, subject, date, format, and rights. |
| DIN 66399 | Deutsches Institut für Normung Standard 66399: A German standard that classifies information sensitivity, media types, and particle-size security levels for destruction of paper and other data-bearing media. |
| DIP | Dissemination Information Package: The package delivered by a preservation repository to a user in response to an access request, potentially differing in format and metadata from the preserved master package. |
| DIRKS | Designing and Implementing Recordkeeping Systems: An Australian methodology for analyzing business activities and designing recordkeeping controls based on operational, accountability, and evidentiary requirements. |
| DLP | Data Loss Prevention: Technologies and policies that identify sensitive information and prevent unauthorized copying, transmission, printing, or removal from document and records environments. |
| DMS | Document Management System: Software for capturing, organizing, versioning, securing, searching, and routing documents. It may require additional controls to satisfy formal records-management obligations. |
| DoD 5015.2-STD | Department of Defense 5015.2 Standard, Electronic Records Management Software Applications Design Criteria Standard: An influential U.S. government specification defining functional requirements for records-management applications, including filing, retention, access, transfer, and disposition controls. |
| DPI | Dots per Inch: A measure commonly used to specify scanning and output resolution. The selected value affects legibility, optical character recognition, file size, and reproduction quality. |
| DPIA | Data Protection Impact Assessment: A structured assessment of privacy risks associated with processing personal data, required in some jurisdictions for activities likely to create high risks to individuals. |
| DPO | Data Protection Officer: A designated privacy role that advises on legal obligations, monitors compliance, supports impact assessments, and serves as a contact for regulators and data subjects. |
| DPO | Document Process Outsourcing: The contracted operation of document-intensive processes such as intake, scanning, indexing, classification, storage, retrieval, conversion, and controlled disposition. |
| DR | Disaster Recovery: The plans and capabilities used to restore systems, repositories, indexes, and access services after a disruptive event or technology failure. |
| DROID | Digital Record Object Identification: A file-format identification and profiling tool developed by The National Archives in the United Kingdom. It helps repositories inventory formats and plan preservation actions. |
| DSAR | Data Subject Access Request: A request by an individual to obtain information about personal data held by an organization. Fulfillment requires reliable search, review, redaction, and response processes. |
| E | |
| EAC-CPF | Encoded Archival Context—Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families: An XML standard for encoding authoritative contextual information about the entities that create, maintain, or use archival records. |
| EAD | Encoded Archival Description: An XML standard for encoding archival finding aids so collection descriptions can be consistently structured, exchanged, searched, and presented online. |
| ECM | Enterprise Content Management: The strategies and systems used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver organizational content across its lifecycle. |
| EDMS | Electronic Document Management System: A repository and workflow platform for digital documents that typically provides indexing, version control, permissions, search, audit trails, and controlled distribution. |
| EDRM | Electronic Discovery Reference Model: A framework describing information governance, identification, preservation, collection, processing, review, analysis, production, and presentation activities in electronic discovery. |
| eIDAS | Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services: The European Union framework governing electronic identification and trust services, including electronic signatures, seals, timestamps, registered delivery, and related evidentiary controls. |
| EN 15713 | European Standard 15713, Secure Destruction of Confidential Material: A code of practice specifying controls for collecting, handling, transporting, and securely destroying confidential materials. |
| ERM | Electronic Records Management: The controlled capture, classification, retention, preservation, access, and disposition of records maintained in electronic form. |
| ERM | Enterprise Report Management: Technology for capturing, indexing, retaining, and distributing high-volume computer-generated reports, statements, and transaction outputs, often replacing legacy optical-disk systems. |
| ERMS | Electronic Records Management System: Software designed to enforce records classification, metadata, access, retention, legal holds, transfer, and authorized disposition for electronic information. |
| ESI | Electronically Stored Information: Digital information potentially relevant to litigation, investigation, or regulatory review, including email, documents, messages, databases, recordings, and system metadata. |
| E-SIGN Act | Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act: A U.S. law establishing that electronic signatures and records generally cannot be denied legal effect solely because they are electronic. |
| ETSI | European Telecommunications Standards Institute: A standards organization that publishes technical specifications for electronic signatures, seals, timestamps, trust services, and long-term validation evidence. |
| F | |
| FACTA | Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act: A U.S. law whose Disposal Rule requires organizations holding consumer-report information to take reasonable measures when destroying that information. |
| FADGI | Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative: A U.S. collaborative initiative that publishes technical guidelines and quality targets for digitizing cultural heritage materials, records, photographs, and other media. |
| FERPA | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: A U.S. law protecting the privacy of student education records and regulating access, disclosure, amendment, and institutional recordkeeping practices. |
| FIDO | Format Identification for Digital Objects: A preservation tool that identifies file formats using signatures from the PRONOM registry, supporting repository profiling and migration planning. |
| FINRA | Financial Industry Regulatory Authority: The U.S. self-regulatory organization for broker-dealers whose rules impose significant record creation, retention, accessibility, supervision, and production obligations. |
| FIPS | Federal Information Processing Standards: U.S. government standards for information systems, including security and cryptographic requirements relevant to repositories handling federal information. |
| FISMA | Federal Information Security Modernization Act: A U.S. law establishing information-security requirements for federal agencies and certain contractors, including controls affecting electronic records and supporting systems. |
| FITS | File Information Tool Set: A digital preservation utility that combines multiple identification and characterization tools to produce consolidated technical metadata about files. |
| FOIA | Freedom of Information Act: A U.S. law providing public access to federal agency records, subject to exemptions. Effective response depends on defensible search, retrieval, review, redaction, and release processes. |
| FRC | Federal Records Center: A facility operated or authorized for economical storage and servicing of inactive U.S. federal records pending transfer or authorized destruction. |
| FRCP | Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: The procedural rules for U.S. federal civil litigation, including obligations concerning preservation, discovery, production, and loss of electronically stored information. |
| G | |
| GARP | Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles: ARMA’s framework for evaluating recordkeeping through accountability, transparency, integrity, protection, compliance, availability, retention, and disposition. |
| GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation: The European Union regulation governing personal-data processing, including requirements affecting retention limitation, access, correction, erasure, security, accountability, and processor relationships. |
| GLBA | Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: A U.S. law requiring financial institutions to protect nonpublic personal information, with implications for document access, storage, vendor oversight, and secure destruction. |
| GRC | Governance, Risk, and Compliance: An integrated approach to aligning information controls with organizational policies, legal duties, risk tolerances, and assurance requirements. |
| H | |
| HIPAA | Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: A U.S. law whose privacy, security, and breach-notification requirements govern protected health information throughout storage, access, transmission, retrieval, and disposal. |
| HSM | Hardware Security Module: A tamper-resistant device that generates, protects, and uses cryptographic keys for encryption, digital signatures, seals, and timestamps. |
| I | |
| IAM | Identity and Access Management: The policies and technologies used to establish identities, authenticate users, assign permissions, and review access to document and records repositories. |
| ICO | Information Commissioner’s Office: The United Kingdom regulator responsible for data protection, freedom of information, and related information-rights legislation. |
| ICR | Intelligent Character Recognition: Recognition technology designed to interpret handwritten or hand-printed characters during document capture, often combined with validation and confidence scoring. |
| ICRM | Institute of Certified Records Managers: The professional certification body that administers records-management credentials and examinations, including Certified Records Manager and Certified Records Analyst. |
| IDP | Intelligent Document Processing: The use of capture, recognition, machine learning, and workflow technologies to classify documents, extract data, validate results, and route content with reduced manual effort. |
| IG | Information Governance: The coordinated framework of authority, policies, controls, responsibilities, and metrics used to manage information according to business, legal, risk, privacy, and value requirements. |
| IGIM | Information Governance Implementation Model: An ARMA model that organizes information-governance work across stakeholders, legal and regulatory requirements, policies, procedures, systems, infrastructure, and continual improvement. |
| IGP | Information Governance Professional: An ARMA credential demonstrating the ability to develop, implement, and oversee cross-functional information-governance programs. |
| IIIF | International Image Interoperability Framework: Open application programming interfaces for delivering, comparing, annotating, and presenting high-resolution images and associated metadata across digital repositories. |
| IPM | Images per Minute: A scanner-throughput measure that counts captured page sides rather than physical sheets, making it especially useful when comparing duplex equipment. |
| IRMS | Information and Records Management Society: A professional association supporting records and information practitioners through education, standards engagement, networking, and practical guidance. |
| ISAAR(CPF) | International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families: An International Council on Archives standard for creating authority records about entities responsible for creating and maintaining archives. |
| ISAD(G) | General International Standard Archival Description: An International Council on Archives standard providing principles and elements for consistent multilevel description of archival holdings. |
| i-SIGMA | International Secure Information Governance & Management Association: A trade association representing secure destruction and records-information management service providers and administering industry certifications and operating standards. |
| ISO 11108 | International Organization for Standardization 11108, Archival Paper—Requirements for Permanence and Durability: A standard specifying characteristics for paper intended for permanent records subject to frequent handling and use. |
| ISO 11799 | International Organization for Standardization 11799, Document Storage Requirements for Archive and Library Materials: A standard addressing repository construction, environmental conditions, fire protection, security, and operational safeguards for physical collections. |
| ISO 13008 | International Organization for Standardization 13008, Digital Records Conversion and Migration Process: A standard providing planning, control, documentation, and validation requirements for defensible conversion and migration of digital records. |
| ISO 14641 | International Organization for Standardization 14641, Electronic Document Management: A standard specifying the design and operation of systems intended to preserve electronic documents with integrity, security, and traceability. |
| ISO 14721 | International Organization for Standardization 14721, Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System: The foundational reference model for ingesting, preserving, managing, and providing long-term access to digital information. |
| ISO 15489 | International Organization for Standardization 15489, Information and Documentation—Records Management: The principal international standard setting concepts and principles for creating, capturing, and managing authoritative records. |
| ISO 16175 | International Organization for Standardization 16175, Processes and Functional Requirements for Software for Managing Records: A standards series defining functional principles and requirements for records controls embedded in business systems and dedicated applications. |
| ISO 16363 | International Organization for Standardization 16363, Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories: A standard defining evidence-based criteria for assessing organizational infrastructure, digital-object management, security, and technical risk in preservation repositories. |
| ISO 19005 | International Organization for Standardization 19005, Electronic Document File Format for Long-Term Preservation: The standards series defining archival profiles of Portable Document Format that constrain features unsuitable for reliable long-term preservation. |
| ISO 21964 | International Organization for Standardization 21964, Destruction of Confidential Material: A standards series covering destruction processes, media categories, protection classes, security levels, and particle-size requirements. |
| ISO 23081 | International Organization for Standardization 23081, Metadata for Records: A standards series establishing principles and implementation considerations for metadata that supports records context, authenticity, management, and use. |
| ISO 30300 | International Organization for Standardization 30300, Records Management—Core Concepts and Vocabulary: A standard defining foundational concepts and terminology used in records management and management systems for records. |
| ISO 30301 | International Organization for Standardization 30301, Management Systems for Records—Requirements: A certifiable management-system standard for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving organizational controls over records. |
| ISO 32000 | International Organization for Standardization 32000, Portable Document Format: The international standard specifying the digital document format widely used for reliable presentation, exchange, signing, and retention. |
| ISO 9706 | International Organization for Standardization 9706, Paper for Documents—Requirements for Permanence: A standard defining paper characteristics intended to support long usable life under normal storage and handling conditions. |
| ISO/IEC 27001 | International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission 27001, Information Security Management Systems—Requirements: A certifiable standard for managing information-security risks through governance, controls, monitoring, and continual improvement. |
| ISO/IEC 27701 | International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission 27701, Privacy Information Management Systems: A privacy-management extension that helps organizations structure controls for personal information and demonstrate accountability. |
| ISO/TR 18492 | International Organization for Standardization Technical Report 18492, Long-Term Preservation of Electronic Document-Based Information: Guidance for developing preservation strategies, selecting storage technologies, managing migration, and protecting the accessibility and integrity of electronic documents. |
| J | |
| JBIG2 | Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group 2: A high-compression format for black-and-white images, often embedded in scanned-document files. Lossy settings require careful quality control because symbol substitution can occur. |
| JHOVE | JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment: A digital preservation tool used to identify, validate, and characterize supported file formats and produce technical metadata. |
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group: A widely used lossy image-compression format suited to continuous-tone photographs but generally less appropriate for text-heavy archival masters. |
| JPEG 2000 | Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000: An image-compression standard supporting lossless and lossy encoding, high bit depths, and efficient resolution delivery for preservation and access workflows. |
| L | |
| LOCKSS | Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe: A distributed digital preservation approach that maintains multiple independently controlled copies and continually checks and repairs content. |
| LTO | Linear Tape-Open: A magnetic-tape technology widely used for high-capacity backups and digital archives. Effective use requires media management, integrity checks, and planned generational migration. |
| LTV | Long-Term Validation: The preservation of certificates, revocation evidence, timestamps, and related data needed to validate a digital signature after the original validation services or credentials expire. |
| M | |
| MD5 | Message Digest Algorithm 5: A legacy hash function still encountered in repository fixity workflows. Its collision weaknesses make stronger algorithms preferable where authenticity or adversarial tampering is a concern. |
| METS | Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard: An XML schema for packaging descriptive, administrative, structural, and file metadata for complex digital objects in repositories. |
| MICR | Magnetic Ink Character Recognition: A recognition technology used primarily for machine reading of bank checks and related financial documents during high-volume capture and processing. |
| MIME | Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions: A standard that identifies content types and encodings in email and other digital exchanges, helping repositories characterize attachments and file formats. |
| MoReq | Modular Requirements for Records Systems: A European specification describing functional requirements and modular services for electronic recordkeeping systems. |
| MRC | Mixed Raster Content: A compression method that separates text, line art, and background imagery into layers so scanned documents can achieve smaller files while retaining readability. |
| N | |
| NAID | National Association for Information Destruction: The secure-destruction organization whose name continues through i-SIGMA programs and terminology used by shredding and media-destruction providers. |
| NAID AAA | National Association for Information Destruction AAA Certification: An audited certification program assessing secure-destruction providers against operational, personnel, facility, transport, documentation, and destruction requirements. |
| NARA | National Archives and Records Administration: The U.S. federal agency responsible for government records policy, retention and disposal authorization, archival preservation, records-center services, and public access to permanent records. |
| NDSA | National Digital Stewardship Alliance: A consortium that develops practical guidance, staffing resources, surveys, and levels of digital preservation for stewardship organizations. |
| NFPA 232 | National Fire Protection Association 232, Standard for the Protection of Records: A standard addressing fire protection, construction, storage arrangements, and safeguards for facilities holding records. |
| NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology: A U.S. agency that publishes cybersecurity, risk, encryption, identity, storage, and media-sanitization standards widely applied to electronic records environments. |
| NIST SP 800-88 | National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-88, Guidelines for Media Sanitization: Authoritative guidance for clearing, purging, or destroying data-bearing media according to information sensitivity and reuse or disposal decisions. |
| NSA/CSS | National Security Agency/Central Security Service: The U.S. organization that publishes evaluated-products lists and specifications for devices used to destroy classified paper, optical media, and electronic storage media. |
| O | |
| OAIS | Open Archival Information System: A reference model defining the functions, information packages, and responsibilities required for long-term preservation and access to digital information. |
| OCR | Optical Character Recognition: Technology that converts images of printed or typed text into machine-readable characters, enabling full-text search, data extraction, accessibility, and workflow automation. |
| ODF | OpenDocument Format: An open, XML-based file format for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other office content that supports interoperability and preservation planning. |
| OMR | Optical Mark Recognition: Capture technology that detects filled boxes, bubbles, check marks, or other marks on structured forms and converts them into data. |
| P | |
| PAdES | Portable Document Format Advanced Electronic Signatures: European technical specifications for embedding advanced and qualified electronic signatures into portable documents, including profiles supporting long-term validation. |
| PAIMAS | Producer-Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard: A standard methodology for planning and controlling the transfer of information from a producer to a preservation archive. |
| PAT | Photographic Activity Test: An accelerated-aging test used to assess whether storage enclosures, adhesives, inks, and related materials may chemically damage photographic images. |
| PCI DSS | Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard: Security requirements for organizations that store, process, or transmit payment-card data, including controls over document images, access, retention, and disposal. |
| Portable Document Format: A platform-independent file format designed to preserve document appearance and widely used for distribution, signing, imaging, and records retention. |
|
| PDF/A | Portable Document Format for Long-Term Preservation: A family of standardized archival profiles that restricts features such as external dependencies and requires information needed for reliable future rendering. |
| PDF/UA | Portable Document Format/Universal Accessibility: A standard for creating accessible documents with appropriate structure, reading order, alternative text, navigation, and semantic tagging. |
| PDI | Preservation Description Information: Information within the Open Archival Information System model that documents provenance, context, reference, fixity, and access rights for preserved content. |
| PHI | Protected Health Information: Individually identifiable health information protected under U.S. healthcare privacy rules and requiring controlled access, disclosure, storage, transport, and destruction. |
| PII | Personally Identifiable Information: Information that identifies or can reasonably be linked to an individual. Its presence drives classification, access, retention, disclosure, breach-response, and disposal controls. |
| PKI | Public Key Infrastructure: The framework of certificates, keys, policies, and trusted authorities used to authenticate identities, encrypt information, and create verifiable digital signatures. |
| PPM | Pages per Minute: A common scanner-throughput rating based on physical pages processed per minute. Actual production also depends on preparation, indexing, validation, and exception handling. |
| PREMIS | Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies: A widely adopted data dictionary for recording digital-object characteristics, preservation events, agents, rights, and relationships. |
| PRISM | Professional Records & Information Services Management: A legacy trade-association name still encountered in commercial records-center standards, certification terminology, contracts, and industry references following consolidation into i-SIGMA. |
| PST | Personal Storage Table: A Microsoft Outlook data-file format that can contain email, attachments, contacts, and calendar items. These files create preservation, search, duplication, and discovery challenges. |
| Q | |
| QES | Qualified Electronic Signature: The highest-assurance electronic-signature category under European law, created using a qualified device and certificate and generally given the legal effect of a handwritten signature. |
| R | |
| RBAC | Role-Based Access Control: An authorization model that assigns repository permissions according to job roles rather than separately for each user, improving consistency and reviewability. |
| RDA | Retention and Disposal Authority: A formally approved instrument identifying records, minimum retention periods, and permitted disposition actions, particularly in public-sector recordkeeping systems. |
| RFID | Radio Frequency Identification: Technology using tagged items and radio readers to identify and track boxes, files, media, or assets without direct visual scanning. |
| RH | Relative Humidity: The amount of water vapor in air relative to the maximum possible at a given temperature. Stable, appropriate levels help limit mold, corrosion, brittleness, and dimensional change in physical records. |
| RiC-CM | Records in Contexts Conceptual Model: An International Council on Archives model for representing records, agents, activities, mandates, places, and their relationships beyond traditional hierarchical description. |
| RiC-O | Records in Contexts Ontology: A machine-readable ontology implementing the Records in Contexts conceptual model for linked-data publication and exchange of archival descriptions. |
| RIM | Records and Information Management: The discipline of controlling records and information from creation or receipt through classification, use, retention, protection, and final disposition. |
| RMA | Records Management Application: Software providing formal recordkeeping controls such as file plans, declarations, retention rules, legal holds, audit trails, transfer, and disposition authorization. |
| RMS | Records Management System: A combination of policies, responsibilities, procedures, metadata, and technology used to create and maintain reliable evidence of business activity. |
| ROT | Redundant, Obsolete, or Trivial: Information that has little continuing business, legal, or evidentiary value and may increase storage, privacy, discovery, and operational risk if retained unnecessarily. |
| RPO | Recovery Point Objective: The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time after a disruption, used to establish backup and replication frequency for critical repositories. |
| RRS | Records Retention Schedule: An approved schedule assigning retention periods and disposition instructions to record categories based on legal, operational, fiscal, historical, and risk requirements. |
| RTO | Recovery Time Objective: The target time for restoring a repository or records service after interruption, informing resilience architecture, staffing, and recovery procedures. |
| S | |
| SAA | Society of American Archivists: A professional association that publishes archival standards, ethics guidance, educational resources, and best practices for managing enduring records. |
| SEC 17a-4 | U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 17a-4: A broker-dealer recordkeeping rule specifying retention, accessibility, format, auditability, and production requirements for regulated records, including electronic storage systems. |
| SHA-256 | Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit: A cryptographic hash function used to generate fixity values that help verify whether a digital record has changed during storage, transfer, or preservation processing. |
| SIP | Submission Information Package: The package of content and metadata delivered by a producer to a preservation repository for validation, processing, and ingest. |
| SLA | Service-Level Agreement: A contractual definition of measurable service commitments such as retrieval time, scanning turnaround, system availability, accuracy, incident response, and destruction performance. |
| SOC 2 | System and Organization Controls 2: An independent assurance report evaluating a service organization’s controls against applicable trust-services criteria such as security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, and privacy. |
| SOX | Sarbanes-Oxley Act: A U.S. corporate-governance law with significant implications for financial records, audit evidence, internal controls, retention policies, and prohibited destruction. |
| T | |
| TAR | Technology-Assisted Review: The use of machine learning, analytics, and rules to prioritize or classify documents during legal review, investigation, or large-scale records assessment. |
| TDR | Trusted Digital Repository: A repository capable of reliably preserving, managing, and providing access to digital information over time while demonstrating organizational, financial, security, and technical sustainability. |
| TIFF | Tagged Image File Format: A flexible raster-image format commonly used for high-quality scanned-document masters because it supports lossless compression, multiple pages, metadata, and broad software compatibility. |
| TNA | The National Archives: The official archive of the United Kingdom government and a source of records-management, transfer, digital preservation, file-format, and information-rights guidance. |
| TRAC | Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: A criteria-based framework for assessing whether a digital repository can preserve authentic, understandable, and usable information over the long term. |
| TSA | Time-Stamping Authority: A trusted service that cryptographically proves that particular digital content existed at a specified time, supporting signature validation and evidentiary integrity. |
| U | |
| UETA | Uniform Electronic Transactions Act: A U.S. state-law model establishing legal recognition for electronic records and signatures when parties agree to transact electronically. |
| UUID | Universally Unique Identifier: A 128-bit identifier used to distinguish records, files, packages, and repository objects without relying on a central numbering authority. |
| V | |
| VERS | Victorian Electronic Records Strategy: An Australian framework and specification for capturing electronic records with metadata and preserving them in stable, self-documenting packages for long-term access. |
| W | |
| WARC | Web ARChive Format: A standardized container format for storing harvested web content, response headers, metadata, and related resources as preservation records. |
| WORM | Write Once, Read Many: Storage that prevents data from being overwritten or altered after writing. It supports immutability requirements, but governance is still needed for retention expiration and authorized disposition. |
| X | |
| XAdES | XML Advanced Electronic Signatures: European technical specifications for adding advanced and qualified electronic signatures, validation data, and timestamps to XML-based content. |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language: A structured, text-based format used to encode metadata, document content, archival descriptions, preservation packages, and system-exchange messages. |
| XMP | Extensible Metadata Platform: A framework for embedding standardized metadata within files or storing it alongside them, supporting rights, provenance, description, and workflow tracking. |