It's all in the metadata for many of these files.

If you have the digital file or scan and the file has an easy name (perhaps a date, number, and the performer name - 20250611-123-PinkFloyd - and that's in the data collection, you can find it with any of the parts. But you can make it more versatile by planning ahead.

If you have a database to accompany the folders (all of the folders, not separate databases per folder) you can start with the file name and then in other columns add the particulars that are searchable, plus notes.

I've been scanning 35mm slides at a local museum for the past five years, and the principle is the same. The slide itself has a long name that allows for information (example: A2016-019_02_02043.tif) allows me to see that the collection began in 2016, and the 019 and 02 are categories the museum uses to sort from there. The five digit number is the particular slide's number (the scanner adds the next number to each slide at that point.) We expect to end up using all 5 digits (right now I'm at about 04500 in my scanning, but we may end up in the 20500 range, so always make sure you start with a couple of extra zeros in the file numbering scheme.)

The main thing is to try to think bigger than you need, because you may find that it gives you the wiggle room for adding more files and filing and sorting later. Excel spreadsheets get used a lot (they do the math and such for accounting uses) but if you can use Access or an equivalent free software (Apache OpenOffice) you'll find it's a great tool for searching later.

Go looking for some of the online fora for archivists. is from Library & Information Science Academic Blog and might offer a good starting point.

Like a lot of projects, the more time you spend planning in the front end, the less time you have to spend fixing things that didn't work the way you hoped.

Good luck! (From Planet Texas)