Registrars on the Move to PARC
August 2025
Did you know that at any given moment, there are many items from the provincial museum collection that are on the move? These movements are managed by the Royal BC Museum (RBCM)’s ‘traffic controllers’: the Registration department. From new acquisitions to loans out—and soon the move to the PARC (Provincial Archives, Research and Collections) Campus—RBCM’s three registrars make up the centralized department that tracks the movement of objects, belongings, specimens and archives through careful planning and documentation, while keeping an eye on the big picture of all things on the move.
One of the core responsibilities of the Registration department is to track and document everything entering and leaving the provincial collections. For the permanent collection, this includes all accessions, deaccessions, repatriations and divestments. Registrars do this by working with collections staff and registering information into the collections database as well as creating paperwork that legally transfers ownership to or from the RBCM. This data work is the ‘invisible’ half of complete collections management, documenting the intellectual information associated with the object or specimen, which is as important as the physical care for the item. At all times, registrars should be able to track how something arrives at or leaves the museum, which discipline it belongs to, and where it is located.. Registration ensures the data tracking is complete through information processing, associating it with the objects, belongings, specimens and archives.
The Registration department also facilitates access to the collections through temporary loans for research, exhibitions, community loans, conservation and digitization, which allows RBCM to share the collections with the world. Registrars work with many other museum staff—curators, collections managers, exhibit technicians, conservators, facility and risk managers—to make these loans possible. Registration is also the main contact to coordinate with the borrowing organization, creating loan paperwork, working through display requirements, and arranging for shipping, permitting and couriers. Registrars document all these loan details in the database and track the location of the loaned item and inform staff of its departure and return to the museum.
And so, with the move of the millions of objects, specimens and the provincial archives on the horizon, the Registration department is taking elements of all regular tracking tasks to plan the transfer of the collection from the downtown museum site to PARC. As seen in the May 2025 blog post on preparing the collections, a lot of work is being done to box, crate and palletize each type of collection. In tandem with movers, facilities, conservators, technicians and collections staff, registrars will be part of the team that organizes each truck to make sure it is carefully packed and fully tracked. Registration’s role will be helping to coordinate the days when the trucks are being loaded, scanning and tracking every container that goes on individual trucks. A registrar will be on the loading dock to create a manifest of each load and will lock and secure the truck with a numbered bolt lock, then launch the database to track the shipment in real-time. The truck will be received by another registrar at PARC, who will then cross-check the manifest and bolt number, making sure everything has arrived completely and safely. It is anticipated that there will be well over 300 truckloads required for the move, so it is going to be a very busy time for the three registrars!
Having the Registration department focus on the location of each item as well as ensuring its data remains associated to it is as paramount to the success of the collection move as making sure every item arrives safely in one piece. Once each pallet, crate, and box is in its new organized discipline area at PARC, RBCM registrars will resume their regular duties. These include facilitating and processing permanent collections and loans, as well as tracking the movement of objects and specimens between the two sites. They will continue to keep a watchful eye on every RBCM collection item in motion.
