At 12:15 PM 11/7/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Because of the problem with the date change in the year 2000, we are having
to redo our
>accession numbering. We've been accessioning by the last two digits of the
date and then
>the order in which it is received, i.e., 97-1, 97-2, etc. 00-1 posses a
problem for our
>system. What are other automated museums doing?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>Emily Nedell
>Museum of Printing History

We switched over to a full-year dating system several years ago.  Most of
our material is post-1900, so physcially relabeling objects is not a
priority (if only two digits are present, they are from the 1900s); new
accessions will receive complete year labels.  In the computer database,
it's quite easy to change the old to the new  by several means without
having to do it item by item, including using a simple replacement
procedure.  Obviously, somewhat more computer storage space is needed, but
this should be a minor consideration.

Cheers,

Art Harris

Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum
University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX  79968-0519
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http://www.utep.edu/leb     http://www.utep.edu/museum