Wartburg Archives Procedure Manual: Acquisition &
Accessioning

1. For internal transfer of materials (to the Wartburg College Archives from another department, for example), the office of origin should fill out, sign and submit a Records Transfer Authorization form and include it with the materials being sent to the Archives.
2. For materials donated to Wartburg College Archives by alumni or other private donors, a Donor Agreement – WCA form needs to be completed. This form transfers ownership and applicable copyright to the Wartburg Archives.
3. For donated materials to the Archives of Iowa Broadcasting, the donor should complete and sign a Donor Agreement – AIB form.

Every incoming transfer or donation will be entered in the Accession Log excel spreadsheet. First, fill out an Accession Record form, then transfer the information to the Log.

1. Create a unique accession number (YYYY-NNN), where the last three numbers follow the previous entry sequentially from 001 to XXX in any given year. Follow this naming procedure regardless of whether the collection is part of the College Archives or the Archives of Iowa Broadcasting
2. Under the Collection field, indicate Wartburg College Archives or Archives of Iowa Broadcasting
3. Creator is the individual or department/agency that originally created the records
4. Descriptive information about the accession is to be entered in the fields: Title, Description, Date From & To, Format, Notes, Quantity Received & Type
5. Donor information is to be entered in the fields: Donor Name, Institution, Address, Telephone, Email, Method of Acquisition, Restrictions.
6. Location field indicates the shelf location in the Stacks, as well as box numbers if applicable
7. File the Accession Record form by year (and then accession number)

1. An inventory, box list or another similar document may be provided with the materials. If so, use that to verify the contents of the accession and to create the Accession Log entry.
2. If there is no accompanying documentation, a brief survey or box/folder list of the records will need to be created by a staff member if time permits. This provides the initial descriptive information and will be used later on when processing the collection.
3. File the inventory, survey or box list with the accession record.
   1. Also, create an electronic processing folder on the campus enterprise drive (under Archives), and place an electronic copy of the the inventory, survey or box list in this folder - to be used as the basis for arrangement and description of the collection.