Definition
Rules for Archival Description
An organized unit of documents, usually within a series, brought together because they relate to the same subject, activity, or transaction.
Source: Canadian Council of Archives. Appendix D: Glossary. http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/rad/rad_glossary_july2008.pdf.
PREMIS
A named and ordered sequence of bytes that is known by an operating system. A file can be zero or more bytes long, has access permissions, and file system statistics such as size and last modification date. A file also has a file format,
Source: PREMIS Editorial Committee. PREMIS data dictionary for preservation metadata. Version 3.0. June 2015, revised November 2015 https://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/v3/premis-3-0-final.pdf.
Introduction
The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative offers the following definition of a digital file:
At a high level of abstraction, a digital or computer file is a stored segment or block of information that is available to a computer program. Files are so named because they are the counterparts of the paper documents traditionally kept in file folders, usually stored in a file cabinet. Computer operating systems consider files as a sequence of bytes, while application software interprets the binary data as, say, text characters, image pixels, or audio samples.
Source
Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative. Digital File. http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/term.php?term=digitalfile
Related terms
File system
References
Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative. Digital File. http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/term.php?term=digitalfile
PREMIS Editorial Committee. Introduction and supporting materials from PREMIS data dictionary for preservation metadata. Version 2.1. http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/v2/premis-report-2-1.pdf.