| Fonds | “The whole of the records, regardless of form or medium, organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular person, family, or corporate body in the course of that creator’s activities and functions.” | “Fonds” level, at the root of the tree; each fonds has its own entry in the Archives section of the sidebar |
| Collection | “An artificial assemblage of documents accumulated on the basis of some common characteristic without regard to the provenance of those documents.” | “Collection” level, at the root like a fonds |
| Sub-fonds | Organic division of a fonds corresponding to the administrative divisions of the creator or, failing that, to a geographical, chronological, functional or other grouping; can be subdivided as often as needed. | “Sub-fonds” level, which can contain other sub-fonds |
| Series | Organic division of a fonds: a set of files kept together because they result from the same activity, relate to the same function or subject, or share the same form. | “Series” level |
| Sub-series | Subdivision of a series (intermediate level). | “Sub-series” level, which can contain other sub-series |
| File | “An organized unit of documents grouped together either for current use by the creator or in the process of archival arrangement, because they relate to the same subject, activity, or transaction.” | “File” level, which can contain sub-files |
| Item | “The smallest intellectually indivisible archival unit”: a letter, a report, a photograph, a sound recording. | “Item” level: contains no units |
| Unit of description | “A document or set of documents in any physical form, treated as an entity, and as such, forming the basis of a single description.” | Any node of the tree |
| Level of description | “The position of the unit of description in the hierarchy of the fonds.” | Element 3.1.4, badge C, F, SF, S, SS, D, P |
| Creator | Individual, family or corporate body that created or received and/or kept records in the course of its activities. Not to be confused with the collector or the author. | Element 3.2.1: link to an authority record, inherited by descendants |
| Provenance | “The relationship between records and their creator.” | Carried by the fonds and its creators; moving a branch to another fonds asks for confirmation |
| Arrangement | “The intellectual and physical processes and results of analysing and organizing documents in accordance with archival principles.” | Structure and order of the tree; element 3.3.4 |
| Finding aid | “The broadest term to cover any description or means of reference made or received by an archives service in the course of establishing administrative or intellectual control over archival material.” | Element 3.4.5 (text) |
| Accession | The act by which records enter an archives service (gift, deposit, purchase, bequest, transfer) and its registration (French usage; ISAD(G) 3.2.4 describes the “immediate source of acquisition or transfer”). | Accession register |
| Authority record | Standardized record describing a corporate body, a person or a family, used to control access points (ISAD(G) I.14, ISAAR(CPF) standard). | Authorities destination |
| Access point | “A name, term, keyword, phrase or code that may be used to search, identify and locate an archival description.” | Access points field (terms); linked authority records |
| Non-repetition | ISAD(G) rule 2.4: give information common to the component parts at the highest appropriate level, without repeating it at lower levels. | Inheritance and context (chapter 5), repetition warning, rule V-12 |
| ISAD(G) | General International Standard Archival Description (ICA), 26 elements in 7 areas. | Structure of the editor |
| ISAAR(CPF) | International standard for archival authority records (corporate bodies, persons, families). | Fields of authority records (5.1.1 to 5.4.8) |