Documenting Your Collections
Info-Muse Network Documentation Guide

Les guides électroniques de la SMQ

Permanent Location Date (Storage Location)

Field used for ethnology and history collectionsField used for fine and decorative arts collectionsField used for science and technology collectionsField used for archaeology collections (object data and site data)Field used for natural science collections

Definition:

  • This field contains the date the specimen was placed in its permanent location site.

Observations:

  1. The inventory and location of specimens are essential for proper management of collections. This field should be completed when the collection is inventoried.
  2. A blank field means that the specimen has not yet been inventoried. After the inventory, this field should not contain any uncertain, approximate or partial dates.
  3. This field is used in conjunction with the Permanent Location Site fields.

Entry rules:

  1. Enter the date in the form YYYY dash MM dash DD, in numbers only (Y for "year," M for "month," D for "day").
    Example

    A specimen placed in storeroom 423, on shelf 3 of unit C, on November 26, 1988

     Permanent Location Site 1storeroom 423
     Permanent Location Site 2unit C
     Permanent Location Site 3 shelf 3
    Permanent Location Date 1988-11-26
  2. If you move a specimen, remember to enter the new date in the Permanent Location Date field and the new location in the Permanent Location Site fields. It is important to keep an audit trail of such dates. Archive information on previous dates.
  3. If you know that you have a specimen in your collections but cannot find it, write "unknown" in the Permanent Location Site 1 field and the date of this observation in the Permanent Location Date field.
    Example

    A specimen not found during the inventory completed on February 7, 1992

     Permanent Location Site 1unknown
    Permanent Location Date 1992-02-07
  4. This field may contain multiple entries separated by a semicolon followed by a space.

www.smq.qc.ca © Société des musées du Québec