Here's an alternative that we have come up with after trying to juggle an
accession ledger, worksheets, computer records and acession files.

Each artifact or group of artifacts donated has a file - which includes the
transfer of title form which in the case of a donation is the signed Gift
Agreement - this becomes our primary record for the artifact(s). The
artifact is catalogued and the information added to the collections
database - an accession ledger, or an acession report really, is then
created from the computerized records.

We realized that the old accession ledger was created from the
information on the Gift Agreement and that with the change in technology
we needed to rethink how we did things and why. So far this system
has worked very well for us.

Valerie Lenethen
Registrar
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
Halifax, NS
CANADA
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