ABSTRACT
A strong trend in the design and presentation of museum collections is to involve networked digital databases in these activities. In the context of museums, digital images traditionally have a documentary function, so that images have been posited as referents for objects that one might encounter during a visit (ethnographic objects, books, maps, etc.). We have found that when digital images are part of networked databases, the way they take on instrumental and authoritative roles affects tradition and supports new practices. Images become more mobile, more spontaneously generated or created, or travel more easily from one technological platform to another. Furthermore, the intersection of digital and network technologies also means that images can be related to each other in new ways, within databases or with other resources on the web, and that they serve as support for mediated social interactions such as sharing, discussion, or annotation. The images themselves become the focus of forms of engagement and of embedding that shape access and production of knowledge. They should not be seen as mainly representing museum objects.
