You said “Do they become just one more source of online information to be appropriated, used, and remixed (no doubt for nefarious purposes)?” I recently lamented about the lack of high quality museum images on my blog. I certainly don’t want them for nefarious purposes- I want them so I can blog about them, or save them as a desktop image so I can see it every time I turn on my computer.

That aside, I am very interested in how museums can become a more visible part of the online scene. I have never worked in a museum, though I have served as a docent and a student adviser to a local museum. I certainly wouldn’t mind working in a museum someday. 🙂 I think libraries are a lot like museums in that they provide a safe place to interact, one of the few non-commercial venues to do so. (Well, some museums are non commercial, anyway.) An online site might replicate that ability, allowing users to use museum pieces as conversation pieces throughout the blogosphere as well as on the museum’s own site.