RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
• the cost of materials
• publishers or distributors that regularly provide materials free.
The accessions register can be a large, hard-back notebook, or a ring-binder
file. If you have a computer, you could include details of new acquisitions in a
database, and do without a separate accessions register. However, if there is
only one computer and it is in great demand, an accessions register is often a
quicker way of recording additions and deletions, or noting statistics. The
additions and deletions can be entered onto the computer later.
Details of new materials should be added to the accessions register the day that
the materials arrive, or as soon as possible afterwards. If materials arrive in a
batch, record the whole batch before moving on to the classification process.
This makes better use of time.
The accessions register should include a brief description of each material,
including:
• accession number (see below)
• date the material arrived in the resource centre
• author (only the first author, if more than one)
• title (abbreviated, if long) and edition
• place of publication
• publisher
• year of publication
• price
• source
• classification number (added later when the material is catalogued)
• notes/remarks, such as condition of the material when it arrived.
An accessions register contains a brief description of all the materials in the
collection.
Each material needs an accession number (identification number). Number the
materials in the order that you obtain them, starting with number 1. This way,
the last number in the accessions register will show how many materials have
been added to the collection. To find out the number in the collection, take
away the number that have been weeded (removed).
You can either have one accessions register for all materials, or separate
accessions registers for different types of material. For example, you could have
one accessions register for printed materials and one for audiovisual materials.
Separate accessions registers make it easier to find out how many of a
particular type of material are held in the resource centre.
After recording a material in the accessions register, write the accession number
inside the stamped area, or close to the stamped area if there is no space inside.
If you have a lending service and use loan slips (see Section 7: Information
services), paste a loan slip onto the first right-hand page. The materials are
16 SECTION 4: DEVELOPING THE COLLECTION