Collection Records and Accession Registers for Small Collections
An accession register is the one record that proves what you hold and how you came to hold it. What to record, how to number items, and how to keep it from drifting.
If a small archive, museum, society or company collection keeps only one record, it should be the accession register: a sequential list of everything that has formally entered the collection, when, from whom, and on what terms. The catalogue describes items; the register proves you hold them and have the right to. When ownership, provenance or a missing item is ever questioned, the register is what answers.
Accession, catalogue, location: three different records
- Accession register: one entry per acquisition event. "On this date, from this person, we received this group of material, on these terms." Written once, never rewritten.
- Catalogue: descriptions of items or groups for finding and research. Revised as knowledge improves.
- Location index: where each item physically or digitally sits now. Changes whenever things move.
Mixing these is the most common mistake in small collections. A catalogue entry edited over the years cannot also serve as proof of what arrived in 1998.
What each accession entry should hold
- Accession number: unique, sequential, never reused.
- Date received and date formally accepted, if different.
- Source: the donor, vendor or transferring body, with contact details kept separately under proper access control.
- Method: gift, purchase, bequest, transfer, loan or deposit.
- Brief description and quantity: "3 boxes of correspondence, approx. 400 letters", "12 photographs".
- Terms: ownership transferred or not, copyright position, access restrictions, any conditions on disposal.
- Supporting documents: transfer or gift agreement, correspondence, receipts, reference to the signed paperwork.
- Recorded by and date of entry.
Numbering that survives
A common pattern is year plus sequence: 2025.014 for the fourteenth accession of 2025, with item numbers added below it (2025.014.3). It is readable, sorts correctly and tells you roughly when something arrived. Whatever you choose, write the rule down, never reuse a number (even if an accession is later withdrawn), and mark withdrawn numbers as withdrawn rather than deleting them.
Loans and deposits are not acquisitions
Material on loan should be logged, but in a way that makes clear it is not yours: separate number series, or a clear flag, plus the return or review date. Many small collections discover decades later that half the "collection" was lent and never formally transferred. A review date on every loan, owned by a named person, prevents that.
Paper, spreadsheet or system
A bound paper register is still respectable: it is hard to alter silently, which is its strength. A spreadsheet is easy to start but easy to overwrite, sort badly or lose history in. A structured records system works well if each accession is its own record with typed fields, attached agreements and an unalterable change history. Whatever the medium, keep a second copy somewhere else.
If you are moving from paper, digitise the existing register as images first, then transcribe; the images are the evidence. See how to digitise a paper archive.
Keep the register from drifting
- Accession within days of receipt, not "when there is time". A backlog of unaccessioned boxes is a backlog of unproven holdings.
- Record the agreement before, or at, the point of acceptance.
- Run an annual spot-check: pick twenty numbers, find the items, confirm the location index.
- Use consistent fields, so the register can be searched and exported. What is metadata covers why consistency pays.
For digital accessions, also record the format received and any conversion made; file formats that last covers which formats to keep.
