The levels are the way in which the collections are organised:
- fonds - the whole of any collection
- a series - a range of documents within the overall collection which are arranged together based on the activity
- an item - the smallest archival unit, for example a letter, photograph or volume.
The important thing to remember is that if you wish to see the main catalogue for a series then you need to look for the fonds label. For example, 'Stanion' will appear in many collections as a place name (Brigstock parish records, ZB collections, Montagu of Boughton collection, Pictorial collections etc) but if you were particularly interested in the Stanion parish records then you would need to look out for the fonds level for those records (298P).