A Collection in CERF is the "container" that points to other CERF Resources (such as documents and other files).  File Cabinets, Folders, Notebooks, Sections, and Notebook Pages are considered collections because they maintain an association with specific files that are stored in CERF. Notebook Collections contain links to other Notebooks.  Collections are CERF Resources and are stored on the CERF server, have a unique CERF ID, an activity status (active, inactive, archived, deleted), an Edit status (Editable, Versionable, Version-Controlled, Final), and an access ID that pertains to workgroup ownership.

File Cabinets are used for managing your documents and protocols, whereas Notebooks are where you tell the story of your research.