Arhiiviline

Arhiiviline is an Estonian adjective meaning related to archives or archival materials and activities. It is formed from arhiiv, meaning archive, with the suffix -iline, which is used in Estonian to indicate relation or belonging.

In professional and scholarly contexts, arhiiviline describes objects, metadata, or workflows that pertain to archives. For example, arhiiviline materjal refers to documents stored in an archive, while arhiiviline kirjeldus denotes archival description or cataloging practices. The term is used to distinguish archival resources and processes from other forms of records management or documentation.

In the digital era, arhiiviline practice often encompasses digitization, metadata standardization, and digital preservation to ensure long-term access and contextual integrity. It covers both physical materials—the original records—and their digital surrogates, as well as the procedures for custody, access, and provenance tracking that are central to archival science.

Arhiiviline concepts appear across libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions involved in preserving cultural, historical, or administrative records. The term helps articulate the scope of activities and materials that require specialized handling, description, and preservation strategies to maintain their authenticity and accessibility over time.

See also: arhiiv.