Accession: The transferring of physical and legal custody of documentary materials to an archival repository.

Active Records: Records regularly used for the conduct of the current business of their creator, and therefore, continue to be maintained in office spaces (also called current or working records).

Appraisal: The process of evaluating the value of records and determining which records to retain or discard.

Archives: (1) The permanently valuable non-current (inactive) records of the museum preserved because of their continuing value. Archives assume many forms, including electronic records and audiovisual materials. (2) The repository where archival records are housed.

Archivist: A person responsible for the appraisal, preservation, and reference service of archival materials.

Disposition: The final action that puts into effect the results of an appraisal decision or a series of records.

Disposition Schedule: Instructions governing retention and disposition of current and noncurrent recurring records series of an organization or agency.

File Plan: A written procedure and guidelines for organizing files based upon a specific system, such as alphabetic, numeric, subject, functional, etc.)

Inactive Records: Records no longer needed by their creator to conduct current business (also called non-current records).

Office of Record: The office responsible for maintaining the most complete set of a particular records series.

Record: Recorded information, regardless of medium or characteristics, created, received, and maintained by an organization or person.

Records Center: A records storage facility established to provide storage of inactive, temporary records.

Records Series: File units or documents that are kept together because they relate to a particular subject or function, result from the same activity, document a specific type of transaction, take a particular physical form, or have some other relationship arising out of their creation, receipt, maintenance, or use.

Permanent Records: Records of long-term historical, or research value that are retained permanently in an office or in the Archives after a period of active use (also called archival records).

Survey: The process of identifying record series created and/or maintained by an office and the extent of the nature of their use.

Temporary Records: Records of limited administrative value that are maintained in an office and/or in the Records Center for a specified period before destruction (also called non-archival records).

Weeding: The removal from a file series of individual documents or files lacking continuing value (also known as culling, purging, or stripping).