• 8 Glossary

Ad hoc or one-off disposal authority:
A non-continuing approval, not intended to set a precedent, which provides a particular disposal action for a specific set of circumstances.
(Keeping Archives, Second Edition, Editor Judith Ellis)

Agency:
A body, business, organisation or institution that creates or manages its own records in the course of its business or activities. In the case of large organisations or institutions, subordinate parts such as departments, sections, units, regional or branch offices may be regarded as separate agencies.
(Keeping Archives, Second Edition, Editor Judith Ellis)

Appraisal:
The process of assessing the value of records in terms of their ongoing preservation.

Class:
A group of documents or an identifiable sub-division of a series, record group or archive having common characteristics or the same archival value. Sometimes this term is used to mean series. Also referred to as disposal class.
(Keeping Archives, Second Edition, Editor Judith Ellis)

Disposal Schedule:
A continuing authority for implementing decisions on the value of records specified in the schedule.
(Keeping Archives, Second Edition, Editor Judith Ellis)

One-off disposal authority:
see Ad hoc disposal authority

Record:
All papers, documents or records of any kind whatsoever officially made or received in the conduct of affairs or in the course of official duties; includes registers, books, maps, plans drawings, photographs, cinematograph films and sound recordings; also includes copies of records
(Archives Act 1957)

Series:
Those records or archives having the same provenance which belong together because:

• they are part of a discernible filing system (alphabetical, numerical, chronological, or a combination of these);
• they have been kept together because they result from the same activity; or
• they are of similar formats and relate to a particular function. (Keeping Archives, Second Edition, Editor Judith Ellis)