Archives are the records created, used or collected by an organisation, family or individual.  These records are catalogued by archivists to reflect the nature of the activities of the individual or organisation.  Describing an archival collection also includes the context in which the reocrds were created.

A collection of papers or records belonging to an individual or church body (eg a committee) is called a collection.  A collection is divided into a number of sections (called series) which reflect as far as possible, the way that the papers were originally organised. 

Each series may be subdivided into subseries, and finally individual items are listed. 

An item may be a single item such as a letter of minute book, or it might be a folder.  Sometimes an item is further divided into pieces, the term used to describe an individual page in a minute book or an item in a folder.

Here is an example

Collection   ANG 90  George Augustus Selwyn.  Letters and papers relating to his episcopate in New Zealand.

Series 1  JC Patteson correspondence (ie letters to Selwyn from JC Patteson)

Item  1    Letter, 22 February 1858 written at St John's College