Digital Collections and Digital Collecting Practices

Abstract

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 material collections and draw from in-depth interviews with 20 people 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 environments may facilitate or impede meaningful practices of acquisition, curation and exhibition in each case. Through doing so, we present a framework for design in support of collecting practices and the development of more meaningful and valued digital collections.

"The Collecting Itself Feels Good"

“…This suggestion aligns with Watkins et al's [36] finding that game players made more use of digital collections than other respondents.…”

“…Because mechanics drive the UTILITY and ENJOYMENT values, they need to be meaningfully preserved. Players keep items because they like to use them, which we expect in digital collections [36]. We argue in favor of preserving the game rules and mechanics that players find so important, enabling players to relive and/or recreate in-game experiences and decisions.…”

“…College students collect digital data for research, which creates large, problematic collections that are infrequently used [17]. Recently, Watkins et al [36] investigated digital collection practices in a variety of contexts (including one gamer). An interesting finding is that digital collections are more used that physical ones; people rarely engage with physical collections.…”

“…People collect objects for many reasons, such as filling a personal void, striving for a sense of completion, or creating a sense of order [8,22,29,34]. We find meaning in our collected objects [2,26], and internet culture has allowed us to take our collecting practices into digital realms [16,17,28,36,37]. In digital games, we can collect explicit and improvised items including meta-game rewards (e.g., Xbox Achievements), modifications to game rules and mechanics (e.g., Pokémon), and personalization options (e.g., clothing).…”

“…We lack a clear understanding of players' collecting behaviors and how players perceive the value of their digital game objects. Prior research has explored how players value digital game characters (e.g., [20]) and general digital collections (e.g., [16,17,36]), yet questions remain about how players value digital game objects. We surveyed over 180 gamers about their digital game object collecting practices.…”