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future reference. – 4. An instrument filed for public notice (constructive notice);
see recordation. – 5. Audio · A phonograph record. – 6. Computing · A collection
of related data elements treated as a unit, such as the fields in a row in a database
table.– 7. Description · An entry describing a work in a catalog; a catalog record.
DF: phonograph record
BT: material
NT: accession record, administrative records, agency record, aggregated
records, architectural records, archival records, associated records, business
records, catalog record, content, contingent records, conventional records, corpo-
rate records, current records, dispositive record, electronic record, emergency-
operating records, engineering records, essential records, estray record, facilitative
records, frozen records, graphic records, housekeeping records, important records,
inactive records, input records, local records, memorial record, municipal records,
narrative record, noncurrent records, nontextual records, notarial record, official
record,operational records, organizational records, permanent records, presiden-
tial records, printed records, probative record, program records, public record,
semicurrent records, special records, structure, supporting records, temporary
record,textual records, transitory record, vital records
RT: data record, document, information, nonrecords, papers, publication,
record copy,recordation
Notes: See narrower terms for more specific definitions of different types of
records. The use of the general term ‘record’ when referring to a particular type of
record inevitably leads to confusion because attributes of the particular type are
not conveyed by the general term. In particular, the legal definition of record may
change, depending on relevant laws, rules, and regulations. The general legal defi-
nition of public records is established in the Federal Records Act (44 USC 3301,
cited below), but ‘record’ is defined for different purposes in the Privacy Act (5
USC §552(a), cited below). See also business record, which is defined in the Rules
of Federal Evidence.
Records are not synonymous with archives. While an archives collects records,
not all records merit ongoing preservation.
‘Record’ connotes documents, rather than artifacts or published materials,
although collections of records may contain artifacts and books. To the extent that
records are defined in terms of their function rather than their characteristics, the
definition is stretched to include many materials not normally understood to be a
record;an artifact may function as a record, even though it falls outside the ver-
nacular understanding of the definition.
A record
1,2,3
has fixed content, structure, and context.
Content is the text, data, symbols, numerals, images, sound, graphics, and
other information that make up the substance of the record. A record’s abil-
ity to fix information so that it can be repeated, recited, or recalled at a later
date functions as an extension of memory and is at the heart of the concept
of record. A record may be created specifically to preserve information over
time or to prevent future misinterpretation of that information, although a
record cannot be presumed to be reliable without authentication. However,
any item – no matter how ephemeral it was intended to be – may serve as a
record if it is later used as evidence of the thing to which it refers.
Syn: Synonym • †: see Bibliography • Superscript: Definition number
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