Do I know your pain!  I'm hoping to embark soon on renumbering my collections here as well.  Several different numbering systems over the years has left things in a bit of a mess.  
   I would agree that the old number that was given to the object should continue to be associated with the object.  I know in Re:Discovery cataloging software there is a way to do this, and I'm sure it can also be done in Past Perfect as well (if nothing else, by putting the old number under a "notes" section).  Even though you are renumbering the collection, you want to be able to reconstruct the collection from old numbers if you had to, as Trevor pointed out in his response.  Of course you'd put the new number on the object, in your database and in your paper records, but just to be on the safe side I'd make a note that "This object used to be xxxxx"; better to be safe than sorry after all.  
    As far as the years on the accession numbering system goes, I've run into that a few times as well.  We have an accession review process.  Everything that comes in the door is issued an Incoming Receipt, and we tell the potential donors that the donation is now under review, where a committee (made up of the director and myself for the most part) decides if the item will be accepted.  If it is, we send the Deed of Gift paperwork out, and upon receiving it back from the Donor we proceed to accession the object formally into our collection.  Since we just re-started the year, we had a number of items that were held on review from the end of 2008 that did not get decided on until 2009.  We followed the dictum that we do not own the object until the signed Deed of Gift is in our possession, and therefore even though the object came in the door in 2008, the accession number is 2009 because that is when the object was formally donated.  
 Maggie Carlson 
Curator 
Coronado Quivira Museum 
Rice County Historical Society 
105 W. Lyon St. 
Lyons, KS 67554 
(620) 257-3941 
[log in to unmask] 


      

=========================================================
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).