Accessioning is a term used for the act of making an official acquisition of an object. Accessioning at NPL involves both analog and digital records. Physical records such as the Deed of Gift and Acquisition Checklist are filled out by the donor, scanned and attached to the Accession Record in Specify. Once this is complete, the records are turned in to the Collection Manager.

To create a new Accession Record, you first have to run a query to find out the last number used for the calendar year the donation happened in.

Click on the Interactions tab, then click on 'Accession' in the side bar.

The Accession Form

 

Looking for the paperwork instructions? Those can be found here: NPL's accession process

Need to look at commonly used accession numbers? Look here: Accession Number

Things to know:

Accession Number

If the sequential number you are on is less than 3 digits, use leading 0's (003, 087) to fill the space.

Collection

The Collection gives us an important index to work with as our repository grows. It's not unheard of for a researcher to want to see 'the material Linda McCall donated back in 2012' or the 'really interesting hemicosmitids Jim got from the $0.50 bin at the MAPS meeting'. The Accession Collection helps us find requests phrased in these general terms.

Type

Type of Accession will be Gift, Field Work or Collection. These are explained further down.

Agents

The donor or collector must be recorded in the accession record, as well as the person who accepted the material.

Permits

Invertebrate collecting does not always require a permit. Be sure to check with the donor- NPL will not accept material that has been collected illegally.

Documents

Deed of Gift

Interactions Tab

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