Institutional deposit and citation

Every record keeps its place.

Pressmark assigns a permanent shelf location the first time an item is deposited and holds it there through every reorganisation, migration and change of custodian. A citation written in 1994 resolves to the same record today.

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  • Holdings 418,772
  • Collections 96
  • Earliest deposit 1904
  • Resolution failures 0

The index

Six records from the reading list. The pressmark is assigned at deposit and is the only identifier that appears in a citation. Everything else on the row can change without the citation breaking.

  • Pressmark PM-1904-0031 Notes on the Rhine gauge stations, 1898 to 1903
    Hafner, E. Hydrological office papers.     Deposited 1904 Access: Open
  • Pressmark PM-1931-0447 Correspondence of the Basel typographic commission
    Weiss, M. and Roth, A. Two boxes, unbound.     Deposited 1931 Access: Restricted
  • Pressmark PM-1958-2210 Timetable revisions, federal railways, summer service
    Transport office. Four folded sheets.     Deposited 1958 Access: Open
  • Pressmark PM-1972-0089 Signage trials for the interchange concourse
    Interchange signage working group. Proofs and notes.     Deposited 1972 Access: Open
  • Pressmark PM-1989-1155 Photographic survey of the exhibition halls
    Brunner, K. Contact sheets, 212 frames.     Deposited 1989 Access: Withdrawn
  • Pressmark PM-2004-0512 Digitisation logs, first pass
    Archive staff. Machine written, 1,140 pages.     Deposited 2004 Access: Open

The grid, shown

Everything above this heading is set on twelve columns and an eight pixel baseline. Below it, both are drawn. The two classes that draw them ship in grid.css and are the only part of that file you would delete before production.

Columns one to five

The tint behind this block is one band per column. Where the text edge and the band edge disagree, something has been nudged, and the overlay is how you find it before a reader does.

Eight to eleven

Starting a block away from column one is how asymmetry gets built here. The two tinted columns standing empty between the blocks are six and seven, and they are empty on purpose.

The horizontal lines are the baseline, at eight pixels. Every line of type in this theme sits on one of them because leading is set as a whole number of baselines rather than as a ratio of the font size.

Three rules the index keeps

An archive that renumbers its holdings breaks every citation written against the old numbers. These are the commitments that stop that happening, and they are the reason the software is worth running at all.

Addresses are permanent

A pressmark is assigned once and never reassigned. An item that moves shelf, building or custodian keeps the address it was deposited under, and the new location is recorded against it rather than replacing it.

Provenance travels

Every change of custody is appended to the record and none is overwritten. Where a chain has a gap, the gap is shown as a gap rather than closed with an inference nobody can check later.

One index, no copies

There is a single authoritative index and everything else reads from it. Departments that keep their own spreadsheets end up with two answers to the same question, and the archive has no way to say which one is the record.

Request a deposit account

Deposit accounts are issued to institutions rather than to individuals. Give the address of the office that will hold custody and the registrar will write back with the collection codes already reserved.

A named office, not a personal mailbox.

Pressmark is a fictional product. This page exists to show a theme.

What the registrar needs

  • The custodian of record and their office.
  • An estimate of holdings to the nearest thousand.
  • Whether any material is already under an external scheme.