Online Museum Collections and Social Media

1. Why did you choose this topic?

I chose this topic because I’m passionate about making cultural heritage accessible and believe that every perspective on artworks and artefacts is valuable. I was drawn to how people engage with digitised collections outside institutional contexts and wanted to qualitatively explore what this reveals about the diverse ways cultural heritage is seen, used, and shared online.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

My book offers new insight into the underexplored practice of laypeople curating museum images online. Based on qualitative digital ethnography, it reveals how individuals outside institutions engage with digitised museum artefacts and artworks and explores the diverse modes of knowing about, with, and through these digital images, shaped by platform dynamics.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

My topic is relevant to current research on how digital heritage is circulated and engaged with outside institutional frameworks. It brings an underexplored, ethnographic perspective to user practices, showing how people make sense of and relate to digitised collections in their everyday lives.

4. Choose one person you would like to discuss your book with!

I’d love to talk with people working in museums, especially those responsible for digitised collections. Their insights could deepen my research, and in turn, my findings might offer new ways of thinking about image use online. If I had to choose one particular collection, it would be the Rijksmuseum’s, which inspired my interest early on through its open-access approach.

5. Your book summary in one sentence:

My book explores how people engage with and share digitised museum images online, revealing diverse ways of knowing and connecting with heritage.