We assign a number beginning with TR which means "Temporary Receipt". The
numbers look something like this, TR.1.xxx.2003 with the .1 representing the
group, the .xxx as the the individual objects, and the .2003 for the year.
If the work is accessioned, then the number is changed to conform with our
accession number guidleines (2003.x.xxx) and the TR number is stored as an
alternate number in TMS. If we don't accession the object, we leave the
record in TMS for refernece.
 
-Michael Jenkins
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Marr ( [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 1:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Assigning loan numbers
 
 
Not strictly a TMS question, but does have some relevance.  When an object
comes into the Museum as a potential acquisition do you assign a number to
it and create an object record?  What numbering system do you use?  We just
started doing this when we got TMS and we use the reverse of the future
accession number e.g. 23.2002 would become 2002.23 once the Deed of Gift was
signed.  This was a bit shortsighted as the acquisitions by year in TMS is
sorted by the accession date and not the object number.   The accession date
for us is the date when the Deed of Gift is signed, so if the Deed for
2002.23 was signed before 2002.2 the list is all out of whack.  I would
appreciate it if anyone could suggest a better way of doing this.  In the
days before TMS we didn't assign a number at all and all we had were paper
records.
 
Thanks,
 
Anne Marr
Registrar
New Brunswick Museum