AUTO-INCREMENTING LOCAL ID

How to set your Local IDs to auto-fill during Accessions.

 

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Selecting to auto-increment your Local IDs can help you:

• Save time
  • The Local ID field automatically prefills for accessions
  • The Local IDs for batch accessions can be automatically generated
• Avoid confusion
  • No need to track what the next Local ID would be
  • If multiple Users are accessioning

 

There are some limitations to selecting this feature:

• If you want your Local IDs coded by taxonomy (such as M##### for mammals and B##### for birds) auto-incrementing will not work
• If you want to pre-assign Local IDs before accessioning auto-incrementing will not work

 

You can, however, set Prefixes but they must apply to all accessions. For example, if you want to start Local IDs with the year of the accession you can reset the prefix each year. Best Practices, however, is not to code your Local IDs as somewhere along the line the coding will fall apart, making all the rest of the coding questionable.

 

To enable Auto-incrementing Local IDs go to Start > Institution > Institution Preferences > Application Settings. Auto-incrementing Local IDs is an Institution Preference only and will apply to all ZIMS Users with the Role access to accession animals if enabled.

1. To enable the feature check the box.
2. The last Local ID used will display. This is a hyperlink into the record.
3. The next Local ID to be used will display.
4. If you want to change to a new Local ID setting check the box
5. You can check for available numbers using the Check Availability button.
6. Number ranges with at least a count of 50 number available will display. If you want to use one of these ranges select the radio button.

 

If you want to add a prefix to your Local IDs record it in the Local ID Prefix box. You can use a maximum of 4 characters. Here you want all your accessions to start with the year of the accession (2018 in this example).

 

Don’t forget to Save & Apply to All Users.

 

When you perform an accession the next Local ID will automatically prefill:

 

If you are performing a batch accession simply 1) record the number of accessions needed, 2) select the Generate button and 3) the Local IDs will prefill.

 

 

Revised 5 March 2025