Developing Data Curation Protocols for Digital Projects at Vanderbilt: Une Micro-Histoire

Abstract

This paper examines the intersection of legacy digital humanities projects and the ongoing development of research data management services at Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Library. Future directions for data management and curation protocols are explored through the lens of a case study: the (re)curation of data from an early 2000s e-edition of Raymond Poggenburg’s Charles Baudelaire: Une Micro-histoire. The vagaries of applying the Library of Congress Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) to the data and metadata of theMicro-histoirewill be addressed. In addition, the balance between curating data and metadata for preservation vs. curating it for (re)use by future researchers is considered in order to suggest future avenues for holistic research data management services at Vanderbilt.