n.a group of documents related by use or topic, typically housed in a folder (or a group of folders for a large file)Guercio 2001, 248–249Every record is, therefore, an element in an ensemble of other records, or better, of recordkeeping structures, functional aggregations constructed by the creator in the course and for the conduct of its activity and, thus, set in a specific juridical/administrative and documentary/archival context, in the form of files, that is, of records related to the same affair or matter, or of records series, that is types of records which are homogeneous in form (for example, the series of minutes, of decisions, of circulars, or of ledgers).(plural, files) the whole of a collection of recordsComputingcollections of data stored for use by a computer; see data fileRalston 1976, 561The term file must have been one of the first to be used in commercial data processing terminology. Even before the advent of computers a deck of punch cards was often called a “card file,” a term also applied to the cabinet in which the cards were stored. In the very early days of computers, any collection of data or programs was identified as a file.v.to store documents in an organized collection for safekeeping and future referenceto present a document to the clerk of a court or recorder so that it can be entered into the official recordto initiate a lawsuit
Notes
File1 in the singular generally refers to related documents that are kept together in one or a few folders. In the plural, it typically indicates a larger collection of all or part of an organization's records.
