From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the R.E.M. album, see Document (album).

For the similarly named surrealist journal, see Documents (magazine). The term document has multiple meanings in ordinary language and in scholarship. WordNet 3.1. lists four meanings (October 2011): document, written document, papers (writing that provides information (espec ially information of an official nature)) document (anything serving as a representation of a person's thinking by mea ns of symbolic marks) document (a written account of ownership or obligation) text file, document ((computer science) a computer file that contains text ( and possibly formatting instructions) using seven-bit ASCII characters). In Library and information science and in documentation science is "document" co nsidered a basic theoretical construct. It is everything which may be preserved or represented in order to serve as evidence for some purpose. The classical exa mple provided by Suzanne Briet is an antelope: "An antelope running wild on the plains of Africa 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 int o a document. It has become physical evidence being used by those who study it. Indeed, scholarly articles written about the antelope are secondary documents, s ince the antelope itself is the primary document." (Quoted from Buckland, 1998 [ 1]). (This view has been seen as an early expression of what now is known as act or network theory). That documents cannot be defined by their transmission medium (such as paper) is evident because of the existence of electronic documents. Contents [hide] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 What is a document? Types of documents Developing documents History In law See also References Further reading

[edit] What is a document? The holler back or for proving a phenomenon, whether physical or mental" (Briet, 1951, 7; here quoted from Buckland, 1991). A much cited article asked "what is a document" and concluded this way: The evolv ing notion of document among Otlet, Briet, Schrmeyer, and the other documentalists in creasingly 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. Levy s thoughtful analyses have shown that a n emphasis on the technology of digital documents has impeded our understanding of digital documents as documents (e.g., Levy, 1994[2]). A conventional document , such as a mail message or a technical report, exists physically in digital tec hnology as a string of bits, as does everything else in a digital environment. A s an object of study, it has been made into a document. It has become physical e vidence by those who study it. [edit] Types of documents

Documents are sometimes classified as secret, private or public. They may also b e described as a draft or proof. When a document is copied, the source is referr ed to as the original. There are accepted standards for specific applications in various fields, such a s: a7a: thesis, dissertation, paper, journal Business and accounting: Invoice, quote, RFP, Proposal, Contract, Packing sl ip, Manifest, Report detailed & summary, Spread sheet, MSDS, Waybill, Bill of La ding (BOL), Statement, Nondisclosure agreement (NDA) or sometimes referred to as ; Mutual nondisclosure agreement (MNDA) Law and politics: summons, certificate, license, gazette Government and industry: white paper Media and marketing: brief, mock-up, script Such standard documents can be created based on a template. [edit] Developing documents The page layout of a document is the manner in which information is graphically arranged in the document space (e.g., on a page). If the appearance of the docum ent is of concern, page layout is generally the responsibility of a graphic desi gner. Typography deals with the design of letter and symbol forms, as well as th eir physical arrangement in the document (see typesetting). Information design f ocuses on the effective communication of information, especially in industrial d ocuments and public signs. Simple text documents may not require a visual design and may be handled by an author, clerk or transcriber. Forms may require a visu al design for the initial fields, but not to fill out the forms. [edit] History Traditionally, the medium of a document was paper and the information was applie d to it as ink, either by hand (to make a hand-written document) or by a mechani cal process (such as a printing press or, more recently, a laser printer). Through time, documents have also been written with ink on papyrus (starting in ancient Egypt) or parchment; scratched as runes on stone using a sharp apparatus ; stamped or cut into clay and then baked to make clay tablets (e.g., in the Sum erian and other Mesopotamian civilisations). The paper, papyrus or parchment mig ht be rolled up as a scroll or cut into sheets and bound into a book. Today shor t documents might also consist of sheets of paper stapled together. Modern electronic means of storing and displaying documents include: