Greetings,
We’ve been giving accession numbers to our donated since about 1980 using the “Year:Donor#:Item number” method. All items we receive (photos, post cards, tangible objects like dishes, clothing, etc) are given an accession number, such as 2015-3-11.
Photos and post cards are given an extra accession number such as P-2345 (for Photos) or PC-1723 (for Post Cards). These numbers do not re-start at 1 each year. Photos and Post Cards are kept in numerical order in archival boxes.
We also collect newspaper articles. Currently at least 3 file drawers full. Newspaper articles are kept in folders based on the subject of the article; sometimes hard to do when an article is about multiple topics. Newspaper articles have never been given any type of accession number.
My question is, should each newspaper article be given a number similar to our photos and post cards? Something like “N-7311”? Since newspaper articles are in separate folders, would it be better to use a running number within each folder and add a prefix based on the folder? Something like N-23-56 for folder #23, article 56 in the folder.
I’m in the process of making digital copies of our Photos and Post Cards. Since these have accession numbers, it is easy to give them a filename on the computer. I’m starting to make digital copies of the newspaper articles and it would be easier to give them filenames if they had some type of an accession number.
We do not have internet access at our Museum and we do not use accessioning software.
David Cranston
Hadley-Lake Luzerne Historical Society
Lake Luzerne, NY 12846