This is the first of a series of papers dealing with the representation theory of artin algebras, where by an artin algebra we mean an artin ring having the property that its center is an artin ring and λ is a finitely generated module over its center. The over all purpose of this paper is to develop terminology and background material which will be used in the rest of the papers in the series. While it is undoubtedly true that much of this material can be found in the literature or easily deduced from results already in the literature, the particular development presented here appears to be new and is especially well suited as a foundation for the papers to come.