| Word |
Meaning |
| aperture card |
A card which holds a 35mm film image of a document, often used for maps and plans. |
| archive |
A collection of documents or materials of historical interest, or a place where such collections are stored. |
| bias |
Having a reason to distort or manipulate the account of an event. |
| catalogue |
A list and description of documents, where each document has been given a reference number so it may be found easily. |
| censor |
To force someone to leave out information which might be damaging to your interests. |
| census |
An official gathering of information about all the people living in an area or country at a particular point in time. |
| commentary |
An interpretive account of an event; to offer comment on an event. |
| digitise |
To create a version of a physical object (such as an archive document) which can be stored and displayed on a computer. |
| document |
Any paper-based item, such as a letter, census return or photograph. |
| enumerator |
Person who collects information and returns for the census. |
| image |
In the case of Shropshire Routes to Roots, an image is a digital, visual version of an archive document such as a letter, a photograph or a newspaper. |
| interpret |
To study a document and draw conclusions about social, political or personal events from it. |
| microfiche |
A card or sheet of microfilm on which a number of pages of a document can be stored. |
| microfilm |
A film on which documents are photographed at greatly reduced size; for example, a single reel of film could hold all the pages of a newspaper for a particular year. |
| objective |
Uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices; an objective interpretation is one where the interpreter does not have a reason or motive to interpret evidence in a particular way. |
| primary evidence |
Material produced at the time of an event. |
| reference |
A number attached to a document so that it can be easily retrieved from an archive or other place. |
| secondary evidence |
Material produced after an event, created with hindsight through the interpretation of material produced at the time (primary evidence); history textbooks are secondary evidence. |
| source |
A document or piece of historical material from which historical information can be extracted. |
| subjective |
Taking place in a person's mind; a subjective interpretation is one where the interpreter has a reason or motive to interpret evidence in a particular, biased way. |
