Telling changes in telling stories

Digitising Museums and Art Galleries

Abstract

Digitisation is a well-referenced topic in discussions about the future of libraries, archives, museums and galleries. However in broader works on digitisation, less emphasis is placed on the specificities of museum and gallery institutions. Drawing a distinction is important for understanding the digitisation process, because despite similarities to other ‘memory institutions’, the museum and gallery organisation is different in collection content and curatorial practice. Museum and gallery digitisation is about telling the story of the collection in the digital realm, and the purpose of this paper is therefore to conceptualise the digitisation of museum and gallery collections as a type of ‘digital storytelling’. The discussion includes an introduction to digitisation in the museum and gallery context, outlines the benefits of digitisation, and discusses the complexities associated with museum and gallery digitisation, with a view to future developments in the field and implications for digital storytelling in the curatorial sector.