Arkivsmässig

Arkivsmässig is a Swedish adjective describing something that resembles, or relates to, archives or archival practice. The word combines arkiv (archive) with the suffix -mässig, which means “like” or “in the manner of.” In usage, arkivsmässig characterizes methods, systems, or presentations that imitate or adopt archival principles rather than implying a formal archive itself.

In practice, arkivsmässiga elements emphasize organization, documentation, and long-term preservation. Characteristics often associated with the term include structured classification, clear metadata, provenance or ursprungsspår, versioning, and explicit bevarandeplaner. The aim is to enable discoverability, traceability, and durable access to materials, whether in physical or digital form. The concept is commonly applied in fields such as museology, library science, digital humanities, and archival-informed project work.

Arkivsmässighet does not necessarily mean that something is an official archive; rather, it signals an archival-inspired approach to handling information. It can describe workflows, data models, or interfaces that imitate archival logic, promoting systematic organization and long-term intelligibility. For example, a digital collection presented with consistent metadata, hierarchical structure, and documented provenance may be described as arkivsmässig.

Related terms include arkiv and arkivvetenskap, as well as concepts like metadata, provenance, and bevarande. The term is primarily a descriptive one, used to assess how closely practices align with established archival standards, rather than to designate a legal or institutional archive.