What are Collections, Works, File Sets? - UVicLibrary/Vault GitHub Wiki

Vault organizes digital objects into 4 different categories:

• Works are the main building blocks of a collection and the metadata (such as title, description, contributor) for a specific object is attached to a work.
• Collections are groups of works. A single work can be a member of one or more collections. See the Samvera Features Guide for more about working with collections.
• File Sets are the digital objects themselves that can be downloaded by users. One work can have multiple file sets. For example, a work may have two different versions or editions where each version/edition gets its own file set but is associated with the same work.
• Admin Sets are like collections in that they are groups of works, but only adminstrators may access them and their boundaries can be more arbitrary. An admin set also acts like a template for creating works with some pre-determined, default settings for release or visibility. See the Samvera Features Guide page on Admin Sets for more information.

File sets are members of works, and works are members of collections.

For more information about these categories, see the section on "Definitions" in the official Hyku Documentation (draft).