The Commission on Preservation and Access

Structured Glossary of Technical Terms

Structure of the Glossary


The Glossary is divided into three main sections: the Original Document, the Selection Process, and the Preserved Copy. The latter is dealt with in the most detail; in turn it is divided into a number of subsections: the first defines the actual preservation or media conversion technologies that may be employed; and the remaining subsections are devoted to the various technologies employed in the different stages of preservation and access--capture, storage, access, distribution, and presentation.

The reader will observe that there is some repetition of discussion of certain concepts throughout the Glossary. This is intentionally introduced, since it is expected that most readers will not choose to read the Glossary from cover to cover.

The overall structure of the Glossary is presented in Figure 1.

            ------------------- -------------------
           |                   |                   |
           |                   |                   |
          THE                 THE                 THE
    ORIGINAL DOCUMENT  SELECTION PROCESS    PRESERVED COPY
           |                                       |
           |                                       |
     1.1 Medium                           3.1 Preservation Technology
     1.2 Format                           3.2 Capture Technology
     1.3 Periodicity                      3.3 Storage Technology
     1.4 Properties                       3.4 Access Technology
     1.5 Condition                        3.5 Distribution Technology
     1.6 Content                          3.6 Presentation Technology

             Figure 1: Overall Structure of Glossary


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