Volume 44, Issue 4

This article explores the role of three key tropes in the data curation profession. Using interviews with digital preservation experts, researchers, public sector statisticians, and social science data archivists as well as popular and professional literature and media, this article discusses how tropes and narratives are used to create shared meaning among data curation stakeholders. The article explores how tropes of abundance / overload, openness, and trust are created and used and concludes with reflections on how such stories articulate professional values and concerns. The article advocates for further attention to the use of narratives and stories as the data curation profession develops.

Kent State University Libraries has digitally captured a collection of small fabric swatches in order to create an online resource for them. This article discusses the historical context of the project, presents the guidelines and benchmarks that Kent State Libraries adopted, and assesses the challenges involved with scanning nontraditional materials. The article considers the current lack of standard guidelines and benchmarks regarding the digitization of textiles and offers strategies for carrying out such projects.

When preserving massively multiplayer online video games over the long term, archivists must reckon with their player cultures or risk losing a crucial component in understanding the games. This article advocates for documenting player cultures in these games, investigates recent amateur archival efforts, and suggests possible new methods of documentation and preservation when one works with these games. Successful and suggested approaches include ethnographic writing, video documentation, and the crowd-sourcing of contributions from the player community itself.