Link: What is assessment item banking? (html).
What is assessment item banking? (pdf).

A CETIS Briefing paper on item banks, collections of assessment items and associated software to enable the storing of content to support the assessment of student learning. An assessment item is a complex object, consisting of a question together with its associated data such as score, feedback and either any media files required or links to those files. Item banking software enables items to be deposited, discovered and retrieved. In order to support the discovery and delivery of items, each item needs to be described with metadata, and may also be related to usage data.

[pdf http://publications.cetis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/What-is-assessment-item-banking.pdf]