Hi Katie,
Actually, PastPerfect is very flexible in
terms of what can be entered into its accession number and object ID number
fields. You can use any characters you want – letters, numbers, a
combination of both, etc. Just because lots of museums use a tri-part numbering
system that begins with the year of acquisition doesn’t mean you must
conform to that when it comes to data entry in PastPerfect. Whatever numbering
system you have in place should work just fine.
Cristin J. Waterbury
Registrar/Collections Manager
From: Museum
discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katie Adkins
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010
10:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Question about
Acquisition numbers using PastPerfect
Hi, all-
I'm working on a database project for a local historical society using
PastPerfect. From the PastPerfect manual, it looks like they prefer you to
create acquisition numbers for objects that start with the year of the
acquisition, followed by the acquisition's number, and then the object number
(i.e., 2010.5.2). My problem is that the historical society has not recorded
what year they received objects over the past 20 or so years, so I'm not sure
how to create numbers that will be helpful when searching the database or when
entering new acquisitions in the future.
I've thought of just putting "FIC" as in "Found in
Collection" in place of the year, and then following with the acquisition
and object number, but I'm not sure if PastPerfect requires digits in the first
part of the number.
Any ideas?
Thanks so much!
========================================================= 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).
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).