Digital collections and digital collection practices

Reference is increasingly made to ‘digital collections’, yet this term encompasses accumulated digital objects of varying form, purpose and value. We review social science literature on mate-rial collections and draw from in-depth interviews with 20 peo-ple in the UK in order to offer a clearer understanding of what constitutes a digital collection and what does not. We develop a taxonomy that presents three distinct types of digital collection and demonstrate ways in which the affordances of digital envi-ronments may facilitate or impede meaningful practices of ac-quisition, curation and exhibition in each case. Through doing so, we present a framework for design in support of collecting prac-tices and the development of more meaningful and valued digital collections