Hello,
I am proposing to conduct a long-overdue inventory of our collection in the
near future, and am looking for some help or advice on assigning inventory
numbers.

Here's a summary of our situation. Some items in our collection have been
accessioned and therefore have accession numbers. Other items that have not
been accessioned have inventory numbers from a previous inventory. Then
there are items that have  been neither accessioned NOR inventoried. (we're
a relatively young organization as a professional museum) So, I'm looking
for a way to number these items that will be distinctly different from our
accession numbers (we use the format 2003.x.x) until we decide whether to
accession these items fully.

Is there a standard system out there for this? Or, has anyone developed
their own system that they'd be willing  to share? I've considered using a
prefix of sorts, such as "I" for inventory, or "NC" for non-collection, but
wonder if this is the best way to go. I would want to enter these items into
our database since it may be a while before decisions are made as to whether
to accession them, and in the meantime I want to keep track of them. Anyone
have any suggestions?

Thanks much!
Cristin Grant
Susan B. Anthony House

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).