The paper is driven by an interest to study the work practices of data curators who clean and preserve scientific data and support large-scale digitalisation and data accumulation initiatives. We posit that a neglect of this work could lead to the potential impact of such initiatives being over- or under- estimated. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative case study that examined the work practices of data curators who share scientific data openly and over extended time periods. Drawing from the practice lens perspective, we identify three data curation practices – characterising, augmenting, and liaising – as important work practices that explains how data curators support distributed and long-term digitalisation initiatives. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.