Documents across mediums.Top-left: a word processor document usingLibreOffice.Top-right: a copy of theSwiss Constitution inGerman. Bottom-left: a vinyl record holding a set of songs.Bottom-right: a computer program interpreting a fragment of a clay tablet withcuneiform script about king Shalmaneser III
Adocument is awritten,drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation ofnon-fictional, as well asfictional, content. The word originates from the LatinDocumentum, which denotes a "teaching" or "lesson": the verbdoceō denotes "to teach". In the past, the word was usually used to denote written proof useful asevidence of a truth or fact. In theComputer Age, "document" usually denotes a primarily textualcomputer file, including its structure and format, e.g. fonts, colors, andimages. Contemporarily, "document" is not defined by itstransmission medium, e.g., paper, given the existence ofelectronic 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 do so, creativity can be represented by documents, also. History, events, examples, opinions, stories etc. all can be expressed in documents.
The concept of "document" has been defined bySuzanne Briet as "any concrete or symbolic indication, preserved or recorded, for reconstructing or for proving a phenomenon, whether physical or mental."[1]
An often-cited article concludes that "the evolving notion ofdocument" among Jonathan Priest,Paul Otlet, Briet,Walter Schürmeyer, and the otherdocumentalists 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 atechnical 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.
"Document" is defined inlibrary and information science anddocumentation science as a fundamental, abstract idea: the word denotes everything that may be represented or memorialized to serve asevidence. The classic example provided by Briet is anantelope: "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 into a document. It has become physical evidence being used by those who study it. Indeed, scholarly articles written about the antelope are secondary documents, since the antelope itself is the primary document."[3][4] This opinion has been interpreted[by whom?] as an early expression ofactor–network theory.
A document can be structured, like tabular documents,lists,forms, or scientific charts, semi-structured like abook or anewspaper article, or unstructured like a handwritten note. Documents are sometimes classified assecret,private, or public. They may also be described asdrafts orproofs. When a document iscopied, the source is denominated the "original".
Thepage 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 agraphic designer.Typography concerns the design of letter and symbol forms and their physical arrangement in the document (seetypesetting).Information design concerns the effective communication ofinformation, especially in industrial documents and publicsigns. Simple textual documents may not require visual design and may be drafted only by anauthor,clerk, ortranscriber.Forms may require a visual design for their initial fields, but not to complete the forms.
Traditionally, the medium of a document waspaper and the information was applied to it inink, either by handwriting (to make amanuscript) or by a mechanical process (e.g., aprinting press orlaser printer). Today, some short documents also may consist of sheets of paperstapled together.
Documents in all forms frequently serve as materialevidence in criminal and civil proceedings. Theforensic analysis of such a document is within the scope ofquestioned document examination. To catalog and manage the large number of documents that may be produced duringlitigation,Bates numbering is often applied to all documents in the lawsuit so that each document has a unique, arbitrary, identification number.
^Briet, S. (1951). "Qu'est-ce que la documentation?".Éditions Documentaires Industrielles et Techniques. Quoted inBuckland, Michael (1991)."Information as Thing".people.ischool.berkeley.edu. Retrieved2023-10-18.
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).
