[Norma]

Hello. I’m currently cataloging a backlog of our collection and have encountered objects with receipts or paper donor files with dates. For example, I found the invoice for wood types purchased in March 2008. Do i assign a 2017 accession number in PastPerfect or use the year it was purchased as part of the accession number? Thank you for your help.

[Kaitlyn Donaldson]

I would use 2017 but add a “DC” for delayed catalog in front of the accession number. I used that method once before at a previous institution. That tells you that 2017 wasn’t the actual donation year and help eliminate the chances of a duplicate 2008 accession number.

[Evelyn]

First question is why you are accessioning archival material from 2008? We don’t catalogue archival material at all. If we find an object that was donated in 2007 but got missed we still assign a 2007 number, the date your cataloger uses will be 2017 so that will indicate on your database that it wasn’t catalogued until much later.

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