Abstract
Recently, the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) went through a database migration that created unforeseen data problems. During the migration, many of the accession records were lost or “merged” due to the existence of a double numbering system. This numbering system was created when the Kentucky Military History Museum (KMHM) and its collections were treated as a separate museum from the 1970s–1990s. Due to these data problems, KHS has undertaken a project to process the files, record by record, and to re-enter the accession information for accuracy purposes. During this process, several old loans were discovered. This article will focus on the double numbering issue and the old loans discovered in the KHS and KMHM accession files. The KHS is currently employing several means to resolve these issues, including contacting the owners, attempting to contact any potential heirs, and trying to obtain ownership through the Kentucky laws regarding old loans in museums. As evidenced in the case studies presented here, it's possible to find the problem records in accession/loan files and solve them!
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