Arquivo

Arquivo is a Portuguese term with two principal senses. In common usage, it refers to a collection of documents kept to record transactions, events, or history—an archive. It can also denote a single computer or paper file. The word comes from Latin archīvum, via French archive into Portuguese.

Physical archives include national, regional, and institutional repositories that safeguard records such as correspondence, reports, maps, and photographs. These archives organize materials by provenance and original order, and provide access through catalogs, finding aids, and reading rooms. Digital archives preserve born-digital items and digitized documents, using specialized infrastructure and long-term preservation strategies.

Archivistic practice involves arrangement, description, and preservation. Descriptive standards like ISAD(G) guide cataloging and linking records to metadata. In digital contexts, standards such as Dublin Core, METS/ALTO, and preservation plans support retrieval and access.

Access to archives is governed by legal and ethical considerations, including copyright, privacy, and public-interest rules. Many institutions publish finding aids and permit study access, subject to restrictions. Preservation challenges include format obsolescence, media degradation, and ongoing bit-level preservation.

In everyday Portuguese, arquivo also means a file or data container on a computer, and may refer to an archive file informally, such as a zipped archive. The term is widely used in government, libraries, businesses, and households to denote both a repository and an individual file.