php, mysql, and method question

hi all, i have a question about a good method of handling this challenge. i have a table that contains articles. i have another table which contains the order 1 - 9 that i would like to display them in. this part is done, and is not a problem. here is where I am not sure how to proceed. 1. tbl_display_order - can only have 9 records in it (or do i just ignore anything beyond 9?) 2. when a new article is added to tbl_display_order - it needs to get the field that contains it's order set to 1 so it shows up first when I display the articles, and all the other articles need to have their order number incremented. Maybe there is a better way to do this? Just not sure. Maybe not with a database at all? Thanks for suggestions. Charles