For Want of a Nail: Three Tropes in Digital Curation

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.