Museums and libraries are the stewards of culture in many ways. They both offer us a place to go for quiet contemplation as well as dynamic discovery. Kudos to the Smithsonian for accepting new technologies with open arms and sharing it with their researchers, curators, educators and conservators, and thereby with us.

Scanning a whale fossil; Image courtesy of Smithsonian Digitization Program Office

3D technology opens the possibility to tell the entire story of an object or even a place, allowing museum goers to experience an archeological site in another part of the world, or an element in another part of the universe.

Whether it was a cave painting or pebbles left in a particular order to give direction, we’ve tried to communicate with others to leave a record of what was…Now that we’ve embarked on using [more sophisticated tools] in ways that are meaningful, the audience is the world.