history of digitization : Dutch museums

This study documented four main changes in museums’ information processes brought by digitization of collections: (1) collection registration had a marginal and supporting role in the museum organization prior to the adoption of a digital work form, digitization positioned collection information processes at the core of the organization, overarching and supporting all other processes; (2) these processes were exclusively institutional in nature (collection information inside the museum walls), eventually expanding to become cross-institutional collaborating processes (networked information across sectors); (3) digitization changed the goal of all information processes from controlling content to communicating with the user; and (4) information production, dissemination and to a certain degree use was monopolized by professionals, digitization enabled a democratization of participation by all types of users throughout the collection information production process.