Dear C. I can sympathize with you. My first collections position was at a historic Site that had a total of nine various numbering systems and thousands of non-marked items (collection total was 70,000+ objects). If I understand what you have said, some of your problem is not that terrible. Are your objects already listed in your database and tied to your object files as they currently are marked? The first two numbering systems you mentioned are really easy to fix because all of the information to form the trinomial number is already there. You only need to add the rest of the year to the object, database and object files. This will be time consuming but not hard. You may want to begin a project to change these over as you have time (a few each week perhaps) or have an intern or volunteer that you trust work on it. Most databases will allow you to use any unique numbering system and does not require a set four digit year, so you can work with what you have for now. As for your "Found in Collections" items that were located during your inventory. It is perfectly acceptable to have a large batch of objects sequentially numbered as you described to number found in collections items. In your database, note that they were found without identification so you can track them from this day forward. If you find the documentation and the objects actually number you can fix that in the future, but if not you can still track it as a found piece. If you have documentation that you think might link to those objects you will need to research the pieces to verify that the described pieces (from your document) matches this unknown object and match them up. If you find a found in collections piece, just make a note in the found in collections file that you have matched that object to its original file and is no longer a "John Doe" so to speak. Also, make sure that you remove the found file from your database record, so you do not have the object(s) accounted for twice. From the sounds of it, you are doing fine. Just continue as you are, breath deeply and take it one step at a time. Unfortunately, if you want them to all have four digit year notations you will have to physically change them, but it is not a necessity as long as each number is unique. Good Luck Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need other assistance Tracie Evans Collections Manager Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum [log in to unmask] PO Box 2570 Waco TX 76702 254/750-8631 > -----Original Message----- > From: CYANDERSON [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 12:56 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Accession Numbers > > Hello: > > I need some help with objects which have been incorrectly accessioned 4 > different ways. > The first way is by using the last 3 numbers of the year "942.0.0," the > second > way is using > the last 2 numbers of the year "42.0.0," the third way is "0.0.0" (In this > case, over 300 > objects which did not have accession number during an inventory were > assigned > a > number starting at 0.1.1), the fourth way is the whole year "2000.0.0", > which > someone > started to write out and I am following that method. Are their any > suggestions on how to > go about dealing with the objects and then uniting them with the object > files > and > database (the objects number in the thousands)? (P.S. I am the first > Registrar at this > gallery). > > Thank you > > C. Anderson > > ========================================================= > 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). ========================================================= 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).