CSI: Registrars

Each year, in conjunction with the Western Museums Association Annual Meeting, RC-WR organizes its members to volunteer their professional skills at one of the museums near where the meeting is being held.

This all-day event is known as “CSI: Registrars” (short for Collections Services Initiative).

We tend to volunteer at smaller museums, to help them catch up on projects such as: accessioning, cataloging, condition reporting, rehousing objects or any other work that would benefit from the help of trained professionals. See some of our past projects.

2021 CSI: Registrars Project:

It’s a collections (and museum) nightmare, an arsonist breaks into your building, starts a small fire, and the sprinklers go off. The fire doesn’t do too much damage, but the water seeps through the building, and eventually pools in the basement of your historic structure, which is also your main collections storage area. The Gresham History Museum, in Gresham, Oregon, lived this nightmare this past July, and now RC-WR member Silvie Andrews needs your help – CSI: Registrars to the rescue!

Each year, in conjunction with the Western Museums Association annual meeting, RC-WR organizes its members to volunteer our professional skills at a museum near where the meeting is held. With WMA not holding their regular meeting in 2021, RC-WR is taking its CSI (short for Collections Services Initiative) virtual again.

Join us on Tuesday, October 5th from 10am – 12pm Pacific, to help describe and condition report objects damaged in the fire event. Objects were lost with little-to-no description, but for those that were salvaged, the museum is seeking to enhance its collections data. Working from photographs, you will help the Gresham History Museum better understand their collection and the damage accrued. Come prepared to catalog away – together we can make a big difference! Click here to register!

 

If you have an idea for a CSI project or work at a museum that could use our help, tell us about it.