Becca, I feel your pain! If I had an accurate job title it would be
Registrar/Collections Manager/Archivist/Librarian/...and more.

I think you have a challenge ahead of you with your current numbering
system.  But maybe this will help.  If I received the donation you
described in your example (in fact, I have received donations EXACTLY as
you describe), here's how I would process it.  Our process is based on
the notion that artifacts and archival materials (which includes photos)
are part of the permanent collection, and that library books are used
similarly to our ed collection and therefore documented in a similar
way.  I'm sure there are better systems out there (and I look forward to
reading about them) but this works reasonably well for us, and hopefully
will serve as a starting point. 

The donation as a whole would be numbered as 2006.1.  Then: 

Uniform - treated as an object/artifact.  I would number this 2006.1.1.

Family papers - treated as a manuscript collection and part of the
archives.  The papers would be given a number, 2006.1.2.  Each
individual paper within the manuscript collection is NOT given its own
number, since that is not a standard procedure in the archives world.
Archivists process such a collection as a whole, organizing and weeding
as appropriate.  

Photos - considered part of our archival collections, but each image
gets its own number.  If we receive 3 photos, they would be 2006.1.3,
2006.1.4, 2006.1.5.  

Book - we essentially treat our library materials the same as our
educational collections.  Each book would receive a 3 part number with
that prefix, UC2006.2.1.  (We use UC which stands for "Use Collection,"
and basically encompasses anything "usable" or expendable.)

Clippings - 99% of the time we do not accession news clippings.  (Unless
we deem that they have "artifactual value" but that's a whole other
topic!)  We do file them for reference, though, in our subject files.
Actually, in a perfect world we first copy them to acid free paper, toss
the acidic originals, then file them.  I note in our database that the
donor also donated clippings that we filed, and print a copy of that for
our files documenting our non-accessioned donations.

These are definitely complex situations, and few of us have formal
training as museum professionals, archivists, AND librarians all rolled
into one.  The system I described above does sometimes result in having
to send two deeds of gift to one donor, but never more than two.  

Please feel free to contact me off list if you'd like to chat.  I'd be
more than happy to elaborate or even just provide some moral support.

Cristin J. Waterbury
Registrar/Collections Manager
Wisconsin Maritime Museum

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Becca Hiller
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 1:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Accession numbers in Museum's/Library's/Archive's

It is amazing the number of questions I have as a new curator.  It
would probably not be so bad if I had formal training but all I have
is a history degree and few museum internships. 

I am the museum curator/research librarian/archivist of a small
institution.  The current system uses sequential numbers for
accession numbers and does not want to change that.   What I am
having a difficult time with though is how to. . . hmmm, how not to
confuse the question . . .OK-I'll use an example.

 A donor comes in with a box of newspaper clippings, a WWII army
uniform, photographs, some personal family papers, and a book he
picked up specifically for the library. Currently we use one Cert. of
Gift and after the collections committee decides to keep everything I
start assigning #'s, ect. ect. ect.  The collecitons/library/archives
all have their own seperate area and photographs get assigned a
photograph number.

Where I I have trouble is, if I assign acc# 9988(with applicable
abc's) to the uniform, do I then assign 9989 to the library book,
9990 to. . .what?    What about the papers? The clippings?  On the
Cert. of Gift they are currently just writing that the book went to
the library, the clippings were distributed throughout the verticle
files,  the family paper were in the archives, and the photographs in
the photo file.  Also, they have not been maintaining a master log
but I have picked up one and plan on using it.  Do I write the
clippings and family papers in it?  Do I assign a number to the
papers.    

I am creating donor files and files for each accession number (to
maintian the Cert of Gift, relevant correspondence, information about
the object, ect.), both of which did not previously exist. However
this does not help much in the library and archives. 

My initial feeling is I should have a seperate Cert of Gift for the
collections and another one that encompasses photographs, library
books, and other archival material.  But after thinking it thru I
realized it has its own set of very complicated issues--what about
previously donated  archival materials? Adding a different numbering
system to the current ones?  and on and on. 

Add to the confusion on my part--the collections and archives are
several years behind.  I have stuff piled everywhere waiting to tbe
accepted by the collections committee (as far back as 2003), accepted
objects from even further back awaiting numbers, and piles of Cert of
Gifts that are not filed or are not signed by the collections
committee chair, and photographs from a 1992 donation waiting to be
processed.  

The museum is a good one and I do not mean to sound totally negative
but I am very stressed and really want to get
collections/librabry/archives in order.  

Any guidance you can give me would be very appreciated.

Thanks, Rebecca

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