Does anyone know of any resources (books, articles, websites) that deal with creating a numbering system for an already existing museum? 

I recently took a job as a catologuer at a museum that has ~5000 items in its collection. They used Filemaker Pro to record information on each item, but the only two pieces of information that were consistently recorded were the item's country of origin and the object name. Half of the items have donor names and dates, while the other half do not. 

The museum just obtained PastPerfect software, and I'm at a loss for how to begin entering these items! How do I accession these items (especially those that have no donation date), and what kind of numbering system is ideal for this situation?

Thanks in advance!

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