Abstract. In this article, we define the basic concepts of museum work, museum value, and contextual information with the help of a case study and literature. We base the case study on the empirical material of a project that aimed to gather knowledge of the collections of the Finnish Data Processing Museum Association. This article opens up the concepts and analyzes them in the context of museum work and information technology objects.

The history of computers is short, but very important in regard to today’s society. There are several computer museums in the world but only one computer museum association in Finland. The Finnish museum association’s collection of computers was in jeopardy of being totally broken up in 2007. However, this internationally important collection was saved via a move to new storage facilities and the rebuilding of the collection. This article describes the story of a museum as- sociation that has collected the most important computers in Finnish IT history and the crisis it went through in order to continue its work.