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Abstract definitions
For other uses, see Document (disambiguation).
Kinds
For technical reasons, several Pg. 99 albums redirect here. For these albums, see Document 5, Document 7, Document 8 and Document 12.
Drafting
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations.
Media
Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to
In law remove this template message)

See also
A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often
References the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the
Further reading Latin Documentum, which denotes a "teaching" or "lesson": the verb doceō denotes "to teach".
In the past, the word was usually used to denote written proof useful as evidence of a truth or
fact. In the Computer Age, "document" usually denotes a primarily textual computer file,
including its structure and format, e.g. fonts, colors, and images. Contemporarily, "document" is
not defined by its transmission medium, e.g., paper, given the existence of electronic
documents. "Documentation" is distinct because it has more denotations than "document".
Documents are also distinguished from "realia", which are three-dimensional objects that would
otherwise satisfy the definition of "document" because they memorialize or represent thought;
documents are considered more as two-dimensional representations. While documents can
have large varieties of customization, all documents can be shared freely and have the right to Documents across mediums. Top-left: a word processor
do so, creativity can be represented by documents, also. History, events, examples, opinions, document using LibreOffice. Top-right: a copy of the Swiss
Constitution in German. Bottom-left: a vinyl record holding a
etc. all can be expressed in documents.
set of songs. Bottom-right: a computer program interpreting
a fragment of a clay tablet with cuneiform script about king
Abstract definitions [ edit ] Shalmaneser III

The concept of "document" has been defined by Suzanne Briet as "any concrete or symbolic
indication, preserved or recorded, for reconstructing or for proving a phenomenon, whether physical or Part of a series on

mental."[1] Library and information science

An often-cited article concludes that "the evolving notion of document" among Jonathan Priest, Paul Otlet,
Briet, Walter Schürmeyer, and the other documentalists increasingly emphasized whatever functioned as a
document rather than traditional physical forms of documents. The shift to digital technology would seem
to make this distinction even more important. David M. Levy has said that an emphasis on the technology
of digital documents has impeded our understanding of digital documents as documents.[2] A conventional
document, such as a mail message or a technical report, exists physically in digital technology as a string
of bits, as does everything else in a digital environment. As an object of study, it has been made into a
document. It has become physical evidence by those who study it. Outline · Glossary

"Document" is defined in library and information science and documentation science as a fundamental, Histories [show]
abstract idea: the word denotes everything that may be represented or memorialized to serve as evidence. [show]
Focus
The classic example provided by Briet is an antelope: "An antelope running wild on the plains of Africa
Curation [show]
should not be considered a document[;] she rules. But if it were to be captured, taken to a zoo and made
an object of study, it has been made into a document. It has become physical evidence being used by Interdisciplinary fields [show]

those who study it. Indeed, scholarly articles written about the antelope are secondary documents, since Areas [show]
the antelope itself is the primary document."[3][4] This opinion has been interpreted[by whom?] as an early
WikiProject · Category
expression of actor–network theory.
· ·

Kinds [ edit ]

A document can be structured, like tabular documents, lists, forms, or scientific charts, semi-structured like a book or a newspaper article, or unstructured
like a handwritten note. Documents are sometimes classified as secret, private, or public. They may also be described as drafts or proofs. When a
document is copied, the source is denominated the "original".

Documents are used in numerous fields, e.g.:

Academia: manuscript, thesis, paper, journal, chart, and technical drawing

Media: mock-up, script, image, photography, and newspaper article
Administration, law, and politics: application, brief, certificate, commission, constitutional document, form, gazette, identity document, license,
manifesto, summons, census, and white paper
Business: invoice, request for proposal, proposal, contract, packing slip, manifest, report (detailed and summary), spreadsheet, material safety data
sheet, waybill, bill of lading, financial statement, nondisclosure agreement (NDA), mutual nondisclosure agreement, and user guide
Geography and planning: topographic map, cadastre, legend, and architectural plan

Such standard documents can be drafted based on a template.

Drafting [ edit ]

The page layout of a document is how information is graphically arranged in the space of the document, e.g., on a page. If the appearance of the
document is of concern, the page layout is generally the responsibility of a graphic designer. Typography concerns the design of letter and symbol forms
and their physical arrangement in the document (see typesetting). Information design concerns the effective communication of information, especially in
industrial documents and public signs. Simple textual documents may not require visual design and may be drafted only by an author, clerk, or transcriber.
Forms may require a visual design for their initial fields, but not to complete the forms.

Media [ edit ]

Traditionally, the medium of a document was paper and the information was applied to it in ink, either by
handwriting (to make a manuscript) or by a mechanical process (e.g., a printing press or laser printer). Today,
some short documents also may consist of sheets of paper stapled together.

Historically, documents were inscribed with ink on papyrus (starting in ancient Egypt) or parchment; scratched as
runes or carved on stone using a sharp tool, e.g., the Tablets of Stone described in the Bible; stamped or incised in
clay and then baked to make clay tablets, e.g., in the Sumerian and other Mesopotamian civilizations. The papyrus
or parchment was often rolled into a scroll or cut into sheets and bound into a codex (book).

Contemporary electronic means of memorializing and displaying documents include:

Monitor of a desktop computer, laptop, tablet; optionally with a printer to produce a hard copy;
Personal digital assistant;
Dedicated e-book device;
Electronic paper, typically, using the Portable Document Format (PDF);
Information appliance;
Digital audio player; and
A page of a birth register for Jews
Radio and television service provider.
from 1859
Digital documents usually require a specific file format to be presentable in a specific medium.

In law [ edit ]

Documents in all forms frequently serve as material evidence in criminal and civil proceedings. The forensic analysis of such a document is within the
scope of questioned document examination. To catalog and manage the large number of documents that may be produced during litigation, Bates
numbering is often applied to all documents in the lawsuit so that each document has a unique, arbitrary, identification number.

See also [ edit ]

Archive
Book
Documentality
Documentation
History of the book
Identity document
Letterhead
Realia (library science)
Travel document

References [ edit ]

1. ^ Briet. 1951. 7. Quoted in Buckland, 1991.

2. ^ Levy, D. M. "Fixed or Fluid? Document Stability and New Media." 1994. In European Conference on Hypertext Technology 1994 Proceedings, pp. 24–31. New
York: Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved 18 October 2011 from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.119.8813&rep=rep1&type=pd
f Archived 2013-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ Buckland, M. "What Is a Digital Document?" 1998. In Document Numérique Paris. 2(2). [1] Archived 2011-10-02 at the Wayback Machine.
4. ^ Buckland, Michael. 2018. "Document theory". Knowledge Organization 45, no. 5: 425-436.

Further reading [ edit ]

Briet, S. (1951). Qu'est-ce que la documentation? Paris: Documentaires Industrielles et Techniques.

Wikimedia Commons has
Buckland, M. (1991). Information and information systems. New York: Greenwood Press. media related to Documents.
Frohmann, Bernd (2009). Revisiting "what is a document?", Journal of Documentation, 65(2), 291–303.
Hjerppe, R. (1994). A framework for the description of generalized documents. Advances in Knowledge Organization, 4, 173–180.
Houser, L. (1986). Documents: The domain of library and information science. Library and Information Science Research, 8, 163–188.
Larsen, P.S. (1999). Books and bytes: Preserving documents for posterity. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(11), 1020–1027.
Lund, N. W. (2008). Document theory. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 43, 399–432.
Riles, A. (Ed.) (2006). Documents: Artifacts of Modern Knowledge. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.
Schamber, L. (1996). What is a document? Rethinking the concept in uneasy times. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47, 669–671.
Signer, Beat: What is Wrong with Digital Documents? A Conceptual Model for Structural Cross-Media Content Composition and Reuse , In Proceedings of the 29th
International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2010), Vancouver, Canada, November 2010.
Smith, Barry. "How to Do Things with Documents ", Rivista di Estetica, 50 (2012), 179–198.
Smith, Barry. "Document Acts ", in Anita Konzelmann-Ziv, Hans Bernhard Schmid (eds.), 2013. Institutions, Emotions, and Group Agents.Contributions to Social
Ontology (Philosophical Studies Series), Dordrecht: Springer
Ørom, A. (2007). The concept of information versus the concept of a document. I: Document (re)turn. Contributions from a research field in transition. Ed. By Roswitha
Skare, Niels Windfeld Lund & Andreas Vårheim. Frankfurt is Main: Peter Lang. (pp. 53–72).

Authority control databases: National Spain · Germany · Latvia (2 ) · Czech Republic

Categories: Documents Information science

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