accession number

n.A number or code assigned to uniquely identify a group of records or materials acquired by a repository and used to link the materials to associated records.

Notes

Access numbers may consist of one or several parts. Some repositories use a two-part accession number, the first representing the year of the accession and the second part the number of the accessions in that year. For example, 2003:10 is the tenth accession in the year 2003. Museums often add a third part representing each item in the accession.