Preserv Glossary

Since the same terms may mean different things to different communities of users, especially where there may be technical and non-technical uses, for clarity of meaning common terms used in the Preserv2 project are expressed here.

File - user-level files, such as the PDFs, deposited in a repository.

Object - abstract term for a single file or a collection of files that comprise a repository item. Examples could be a single publication, or the entire repository viewed as one object. In this way the object differs from the file as the object will be a collection of one or more files, plus metadata relating to that object.

Service - performs some operation directly for an agent or user.

Process - is invisible to the user or agent, can utilise many services.

Repository - a set of processes to ingest, store, manage and provide access to a set of digital objects

Institutional Repository - a repository focussed on institutional outputs, typically research papers and publications.