The number of structures in the Cambridge Structural Database is growing really quickly; in fact it has doubled since I joined the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre in 2007.
The quantity of deposits we are dealing each day is also growing. The aim for the team of Deposition Coordinators is to provide the Depositors with their CCDC number as quickly as possible, without compromising on the quality of our work. To be able to achieve this we had to change, adapt and reorganise many processes and workflows we have been using in the past. Upgrading our software platform was also necessary and we can already see the results - most of the CCDC numbers are issued within 3 hours from the time of deposition!
The aforementioned growth leads to other changes, as some of our Depositors may have noticed – since last month we are assigning CCDC numbers in new, 7-digit format. The reason for it is very trivial – we have used up all the 6-digit combinations (a format that we have been using since 1998)! When the CCDC issued CCDC number 900,000 in 2012 we wrote a blog giving a brief history of CCDC deposition numbers.
