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Important: Can I Have More Than One Accession Register

Dear All,

Does the library science allow use of more than one accession register running independent series simultaneously in a single academic library?

Recently, after visiting the UGC office, our college principal returned with a new format developed by UGC in which the books purchased under various schemes are to be submitted.  But the catch is that the accession numbers are expected to be continuous.  

When books are procured under college budget, UGC budget or any other scheme the books arrive in the library at different times and so they are accessioned as they arrive.  This way the books purchased under one UGC scheme will appear at different places in the accession register.  But our Principal tells me that UGC expects henceforth, to have all the books purchased under one UGC scheme in one serial.

To solve this problem, he asked me whether it would be in conformity with the library science rules to maintain more than one accession register simultaneously with different series so that books purchased under different grants are accessioned in different registers.  I am confused.  Since accession register is a legal document, i wanted to seek the expert opinion of the learned scholars of this forum.

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Permalink Reply by Siddu on May 3, 2013 at 16:45

Sir,

Maintaining a single accession register, you can still find a solution to your problem I feel.  These days almost all the libraries are having their own LMS (either in-house or proprietary).  When books are  purchased under various schemes, the scheme under which they are purchased can be mentioned in appropriate field in the database.  

So, any query relating to the purchases under various schemes can be easily answered by just filtering the data on the required scheme. If need be, print outs can be taken and separate files can be maintained scheme wise.  Also, one more column in the accession register 'Scheme' can be introduced to add clarity.

For a big library, re-accessioning the entire collection in separate registers scheme wise is a big ask and not practical too.

Permalink Reply by vijaysrinath kanchi on May 3, 2013 at 17:28

Dear Sir,

Thank you very much for the reply.  But the problem is, the UGC expects the books purchased under one scheme to have continuous series, which is not possible when they are accessioned at different places.  

So can we maintain a separate accession register with independent series to solve this problem is my question.

Please clarify.

regards,

Kanchi

Permalink Reply by Siddu on May 3, 2013 at 17:59

Sir,

Please ensure if U.G.C really expects - "the books purchased under one scheme to have continuous series".  This sounds absurd.  As long as one (librarian) is giving accurate information of all the purchases (titles, volumes, cost etc) made under various schemes, it should hardly matter - a)whether they are in one common series b)whether they are given from accession register or from the database records.  Any which way, the records given from the database will tally with the records in the actual Accession Register.  So, it should not be a problem for the U.G. C.

If U.G.C so insists "the books purchased under one scheme to have continuous series", the data from the database should be filtered scheme wise, exported to an Excel file add one column to that file "Serial no.". Take print out as and when necessary. File the same scheme wise.

Permalink Reply by Manavta Jugeshh on May 3, 2013 at 17:27

Dear Professionals,

I also want the answer for the same.

Manavta Jugeshh

Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 3, 2013 at 19:35

Dear Sri Viswanath Kanchi:

Thanks for your post. There is no harm in keeping more than One Accession Registers to record books received through different A/Cs PROVIDED you put the Accession numbers in such a way that on the basis of accession number one can INSTANTLY identify the the very nature (source of availability) of the book.

This is an established practice and the Audit (CAG) or MHRD (Ministry of HRD, GOI) accept it. We keep FOUR separate Accession Registers in our Library and we put certain prefix attached to the serial (Accession) numbers of the books for three types, while in one accession register, we do not use any prefix.

 I am eliciting this with one example to clarify my statement

We have book  bearing Accession No.

4567,

W4567;

G4567 &

P4567

in four different Accession Register while,

(a) The first one,(4567) without any prefix is a purchased book

(b) The second one (W4567)  bearing the prefix "W" is accession number of a particular book which we have received from the The World Bank (as ours is a full depository library of the World Bank Publications)

(c) The third one (G4567) bearing the prefix "G" is the accession number a book which we have received as Gift

(d) The fourth one (P4567) bearing the prefix"P" is the accession number of the book which we have purchased through Project Funds.

Maintaining four separate Accession Registers help us to

(a) Identify how many books we have purchased in a Fiscal Year & how many books we have purchased since the inception of the Library (their total number) ;

(b) How many Books we got from the World Bank/year and total number of those books

(c) How many books we have acquired as Gift and

(d) How many books we have purchased out of Project Funds.

From the last accession number of each accession register provides the total number of books acquired through each head and by simple addition, we can provide the exact number of total holdings in the Library.

I believe that if you maintain separate Accession Registers and record books with prefix, your problems will be solved once and for all.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

  © 1975
Permalink Reply by Dr.L.M.Khan on May 3, 2013 at 20:48

Sir 

It's a good management and right solution of problem. 

Thank a lot.

Permalink Reply by vijaysrinath kanchi on May 3, 2013 at 22:49

Thank you very much for this informative reply.  But can you corroborate with some evidence since Accession register is a legal document?  One of my learned friends tells me that there exists only one accession register in National library, Kolkata or Library of Congress.  He is a well read man and I do not want to discard his opinion just that way.

And as regards to Mr.Siddhu's contention that whether the UGC really wants continuous series, I herewith provide the Accession Certificate to be submitted to UGC.  It is as under:

University Grants Commission

ACCESSION CERTIFICATE

It is certified that the grant of Rs._________ (Rupees_______only) sanctioned to ________ by the University Grants Commission vide its sanction letter No._________ dated_______has been utilized for the purchase of Books and Journals and the same have been _________ accessioned and noted in the Accession Register from Accession No.______ to _______ being maintained by the college.  The last accession number prior to the Utilization of these grants for books and journals purchased are from _______ to ______.

Signature of the Principal with seal

Signature of the Chartered Accountant

With seal & REgd. No. of CA) 

Signature of the Librarian

I really fail to understand the last sentence of the certificate.  Can anybody give clarification?  

regards,

Kanchi

Please clarify,

regards, 

Permalink Reply by Digambar Bhaurao Waghmare on May 4, 2013 at 1:27

Dear Sir,

I think National Library, Academic Library, Special Library etc has different type of services, Users and Library management or system of record keeping 

In Arts, Commerce & Science college means grantable college received UGC grant so such types of colleges keeps separate accession register for A/C point of view 

UGC also  expect Utilization of these grants for books and journals purchased are from _______ to ______. means this format 

sir I think tackle to this type of problems we should apply our practical knowledge better than theoretical b'cos our library profession has  different between both knowledge so we should  manage our library using some our management/Principal rules also   

Thanks & Regards

Digambar B Waghmare 

Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 4, 2013 at 6:48

Dear Sri Vijaysrinath Kanchi,

The last sentence, that is  The last accession number prior to the Utilization of these grants for books and journals purchased are from _______ to ______. means the books acquired from the  PREVIOUS GRANT.

Say your principal is providing Utilization Certificate for the grant received during the Fiscal period 2009-2012 (meaning 2009-2010; 2010-2011 & 2011-2012 periods) while you have purchased 2764 books from Accession No. 13, 589 to 15,352.

Prior to this grant the UGC has provided you grant for the period 2005-2009 period (ranging the period 2005-2006; 2006-2007; 2007-2008 & 2008-2009) & you have purchased 3123 books which you have recorded in your Accession Register vide Accession No.10466 to 13, 588. So the last sentence will be as such:    

The last accession number prior to the Utilization of these grants for books and journals purchased are from 10, 466 to 13588. means the books acquired from the  PREVIOUS GRANT WERE 3123 IN TOTAL.

Signed by (Principal)

I hope I could explain the issue to your satisfatction.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

Permalink Reply by Langmuanjohn Tonsing on May 4, 2013 at 0:50

Sir Siddhartha, that's a brilliant idea....

But, how do you maintain the continuity (continuous series) for the same Prefix? do you leave 3 line blank after each accession number? As mentioned before by other that books under different fund/scheme arrives at different interval/time. 

Regards,
John Tonxing

Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on May 4, 2013 at 6:25

Dear Sri Jo tonXing,

thanks for your query and comments. In fact we maintain FOUR DIFFERENT ACCESSION REGISTERS. As such it so happens that the book bearing Accession No. 4567 (purchased from the Institute's Account from the grant we receive from government) was purchased in the year 1984 while the book bearing Accession No. G4567 was recorded in the year 2001 & book bearing Accession Number W4567 was received on 2005 & the one bearing Accession No. P4567 was purchased from a certain Project fund in the year 2011.

However, we have the advantage to tell instantly

(a) How many books we have purchased till 31-3-2013,

(b) How many books we have Received as gift on 31-3-2013 or

(c) how many books we have purchased from Project fund or

(d) how many books we have received from the World Bank under depository Library scheme till 31-3-2013

The Audit party gets a crystal clear picture of the collection development process, and all concerned regarding the Projects are also found to be satisfied as we can provide them a list of books purchased out of that particular Project with a few clicks of Computer and provide them a printout of the list bearing author, Title, all bibliographical details AND PRICE within a couple of minutes. We maintain computerized Accession Registers and after some hundred pages we print them in Big size papers and keep them bound. As such the purpose of a bound Accession Register is also served.

I hope I could explain the issue.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

Permalink Reply by shynee on May 4, 2013 at 3:52

Dear  Siddhartha Sir,

what y say is absolutly correct method for that problem.

KEEP IT UP . DO THE SERVICE FOR THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS.GOOD.

WARM REGARDS,

Shyneemartin

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