We need to know what we have.  If we don't know what we have we cannot do anything with it.  We cannot preserve it, arrange it, make it accessible, or promote it.  Even worse, this unknown material takes up space, which is at a premium.  Any inventory, any list, is better than emptiness, void.  If we don't know what we have, it's as if we don't have it at all.

Accessioning is the activity of bringing records into an archive.

An accession is a group of records donated or purchased to transferred to us.

One batch of records brought in is a single accession.

That single accession may consist of items that could eventually go into one collection or multiple collections.

An accession may also be an accretion, "an acquisition of materials added to an existing series or collection".

We use a spreadsheet to create basic intellectual control.

The Date Accessioned should be the day when the accession came in.  If you can't remember, mention in notes when you think it came in.

Accessioning is also the time when you can do some rehousing, arrangement, and description.

Once accessioned:

  • label each box of records with the accession number and a box number (Box 1, Box 2, etc.)
  • shelve the boxes in numerical sequence and/or record the locations in a location guide
  • Shelve the boxes with other unprocessed collections waiting to be arranged and described.

Accessioning Procedures

The University Archives accessions newly acquired items/donations/materials to keep track of inventory. Archives employees record each accession using a Google form which adds the metadata to a running list of accessions on a Google sheet. All of the aforementioned Google sheets/forms should be saved to the employee’s Google drive for convenience. 

  1. For an example of what you'll be creating, go to the Drew University Archives Accessions 2013-Present sheet.  

  2. Locate the physical records to be accessioned on a cart in Room 313 (main UA office) labeled "YYYY Accessions" where YYYY is the current year.

  3. Access the Drew University Archives Accessions Form and click on the preview icon in the top right corner (the symbol resembles an eye) 

  4. From the preview, input all of the relevant information about the accession (e.g. accession number, description, preliminary collection name, etc.) 

    1. To determine what the current accession number will be, look for the last accession on the Drew University Archives Accessions 2013-Present sheet; this new accession will have the next number after the year. Each new year starts over with a new number, i.e. after 2024.31 comes 2025.01.

    2. Typically, there is no finding aid, the accession is unprocessed, the list of holdings has not been updated, and there is no catalog record

    3. The location of the accession will typically be back on the same cart you found it.  

  5. Once the form has been submitted, the Drew University Archives Accession Form Data sheet can be accessed from the “Responses” tab of the original Google form (not in preview)

  6. The data collected for the respective accession (excluding the timestamp) on the Drew University Archives Accession Form Data sheet should be copied and pasted into the Drew University Archives Accessions 2013-Present sheet

  7. Once the data has been transferred, the row of data for the accession in the Drew University Archives Accession Form Data sheet should be highlighted in green to indicate completion.

  8. Let Matthew know you finished the Accession and give him the number.  Matthew will review your work and then assign a new location for the Accession, modify the spreadsheet accordingly, and physically move the accession to its new location. 

  9. We also keep a copy of “Drew University Archives Accessions 2013-Present.xlsx” in MS Excel Format on our departmental Drive (G:\University Archives\Accessions) as a second location.  Matthew will update that MS Excel spreadsheet.


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