1. ABOUT THE DATASET -------------------- Title: Interviews with the Registrar Staff of the Royal Armouries: November 2021 to February 2023 Creator(s): Stuart Bowes Organisation(s): University of Leeds, Royal Armouries Rights-holder(s): Unless otherwise stated, Copyright 2024 University of Leeds Publication Year: 2024 Description: This dataset consists of thirteen transcripts from a series of semi-structured interviews conducted between November 2021 and February 2023 for the collaborative PhD project 'How do ethics influence the development of policies for accessing public collections which are essentially restricted by law? A case study of the Royal Armouries'. Conducted with five members of the Royal Armouries' collections department, these conversations sought to reveal the intricacies of the routine management of museum weapons collections and the central role of museum registrars in providing access to these heavily restricted objects. These conversations were structured around four major themes - legislation, governance, ethics, and access - examining their complex interplay in the everyday pursuit of responsible weapons stewardship by a national museum. Cite as: Stuart Bowes (2024): Interviews with the Registrar Staff of the Royal Armouries: November 2021 to February 2023. [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.5518/1514 2. TERMS OF USE --------------- This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION ---------------------------------- Title: How do ethics influence the development of policies for accessing public collections which are essentially restricted by law? A case study of the Royal Armouries Dates: October 2020 - February 2024 Funding organisation: AHRC Grant no.: 2431326 4. CONTENTS ----------- File listing README_Bowes_2024.txt [Dataset Overview] Interviews_Round_1_Legislation.zip [Top Folder] Interview_Questions_Legislation.pdf [Legislation Interview Questions] JK_2021_11_29.pdf [Legislation Transcript - Jen Kaines] LB_2021_11_29.pdf [Legislation Transcript - Laura Bell] Interviews_Round_2_Governance.zip [Top Folder] Interview_Questions_Governance.pdf [Governance Interview Questions] LB_2022_03_24.pdf [Governance Transcript - Laura Bell] KR_2022_04_01.pdf [Governance Transcript - Katie Robson] JK_2022_05_09.pdf [Governance Transcript - Jen Kaines] Interviews_Round_3_Ethics.zip [Top Folder] Interview_Questions_Ethics.pdf [Ethics Interview Questions] KR_2022_07_18.pdf [Ethics Transcript - Katie Robson] JK_2022_08_01.pdf [Ethics Transcript - Jen Kaines] LB_2022_08_01.pdf [Ethics Transcript - Laura Bell] Interviews_Round_4_Access.zip [Top Folder] Interview_Questions_Access.pdf [Access Interview Questions] KR_2023_02_07.pdf [Access Transcript - Katie Robson] LB_2023_02_07.pdf [Access Transcript - Laura Bell] JK_2023_02_08.pdf [Access Transcript - Jen Kaines] Interviews_Round_5_Weapons_Management.zip [Top Folder] Interview_Questions_Weapons_Management.pdf [Weapons Management Interview Questions] JM_2023_02_22.pdf [Weapons Management Transcript - Jill McKnight] CL_2023_02_23.pdf [Weapons Management Transcript - Claire Lambert] 5. METHODS ---------- To explore the complex realities of weapons management at the Armouries, interviews were conducted with the relevant practitioners between November 2021 and February 2023. This process yielded detailed discussions with the incumbent staff of its registrar department: the Registrar, Assistant Registrar, and Documentation Officer. A series of interviews were also held with their direct superiors, the Head of Collection Services and the Director of Collections (now Director of Collections, Research and Learning), who were invested in sharing their insight as partners in the Collaborative Doctoral Award. From a methodological standpoint, the interviews were conducted with individual participants rather than as focus groups. The use of separate interviews sought to draw out the unique perspectives of each staff member, informed by their distinctive role in the weapons management process. These interviews were semi-structured so as to address the project objectives while allowing scope for the conversations to develop organically. The interviews were consciously structured to mirror the thematic chapters – covering legal controls, governance structures, ethical conduct, and access strategies – to better engage with the study’s overarching research questions. Within this thematic framework, the interviews followed an event-based approach to capture key developments in the processes underpinning collections access at the Armouries.