Collections of textiles-historic costume, quilts, needlework samplers,
and the like-have benefited greatly from the digital turn in museum and
archival work. Both institutional online repositories and
collections-based social media sites have fostered unprecedented access
to textile collections that have traditionally been marginalized in
museums. How can curators, interpreters, and collections managers make
best use of these new opportunities? To answer this question, the author
worked with sites including the Great Lakes Quilt Center at the Michigan
State University Museum, the Design Center at Philadelphia University,
the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, and the WGBH Boston Media Library and Archives, as
well as user-curated social sites online such as Tumblr and Polyvore, to
create four compelling case studies on the preservation, access,
curation, and interpretation of textile objects. The book explores: -The
nature of digital material culture. -The role of audience participation
versus curatorial authority online. -Audience-friendly collections
metadata and tagging. -Visual, rather than text-based, searching and
cataloging. -The legality of ownership and access of museum collections
online. -Gender equity in museums and archives. This book is essential
reading for anyone who cares for, collects, exhibits, or interprets
historic costume or textile collections, but its broad implications for
the future of museum work make it relevant for anyone with an interest
in museum work online. And because the focus of this volume is theory
and praxis, rather than specific technologies that are likely to become
obsolete, it will be staple on your bookshelf for years to come.
