Managing Accessions

The Accession module handles the formal receipt of objects into the museum’s custody, recording the transfer of legal title and establishing provenance before items are individually catalogued.

Creating an Accession

1. Navigate to Collections > Accessions in the sidebar.
2. Click the New Accession button.
3. Basic Details: Fill in the essential information:
   • Accession Number: Follow your museum’s numbering convention (e.g., 2024.1). The system can provide a preview of the next logical number based on existing records.
   • Date: The official date the items were acquired or title was transferred.
   • Source: Link the accession to a Contact record (Donor, Vendor, Bequestor).
4. Description: Provide a brief overview of the acquisition (e.g., “Collection of 50 historic photographs from the Smith family”).
5. Status: Newly created Accessions are typically set to Proposed.
6. Click Save.

Linking Items

An Accession record acts as a “grouping” mechanism. Once the Accession is saved, it serves as the legal umbrella for individual Item records.

• When creating or editing an individual Item in the Catalogue, you can select the parent Accession from the “Linked Accession” dropdown.
• The Accession Detail page will automatically display an Inventory list of all Items linked to it via this relationship.

External Integrations

eMuCollections integrates with external knowledge bases like Trove (NLA) and Museums Victoria. While editing an Accession, you can use the corresponding buttons to search these external databases. Linking a record will automatically pull down relevant metadata (titles, abstracts) to enrich your brief description and create a persistent, clickable link to the external source for future reference.

Accession Workflow & Approvals

Depending on your museum’s configuration, an Accession may need to pass through an approval workflow.

• A Curator creates the Accession (Proposed).
• The Accession appears in the Dashboard Review Queue for a Senior Curator or Director.
• Once authorized, the status is updated to Approved.