This post is part of our Curators’ Corner series. Every so often we’ll feature a different DCN Curator. The series grew out of a community-building activity wherein curators at our partner organizations interview each other “chain-letter style” in order to get to know each other and their work outside of the DCN better. We hope you enjoy these posts!
Henrik Spoon is a Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics Librarian at Cornell University. Henrik was interviewed by Lencia Mckee in September 2025.
How did you come to your current position?
I started out in my professional life as an astronomer. My first astronomy publication is from 1994 and the data sets in that publication (light curves of Luminous Blue Variable stars) are properly stored and documented at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). In 1996 I switched from working on the most luminous stars to the most luminous galaxies, a jump of a factor 1,000,000 in luminosity. It also required me to move from my home country, The Netherlands, to Germany. Seven years later, in 2003, I completed my PhD back in The Netherlands. At that time at Cornell University in the USA there was a group planning to use the newly launched NASA Spitzer Space Observatory to study the galaxies that I had specialized in: ultraluminous infrared galaxies.So I left Europe and was able to use the latest and greatest infrared space telescope to continue studying my pet galaxies and publish about them. After Spitzer ran out of cooling fluid in 2009 and the opportunities for archival research on Spitzer science dwindled, in 2017 I applied for the position of physics, astronomy and mathematics librarian here at Cornell. I now sit in the next building over from the astronomy department and still do astrophysics research one day per week. In 2022 I published my most recent paper. The results are stored in a 268-column machine readable table of more than 3500 rows. Describing each of the 268 columns was a bit tedious.
What do you do?
I am responsible for collection development in the fields of physics, astronomy and mathematics. I am also the library liaison to these same three departments.I am also a consultant for the Cornell Data Services (CDS), which means that if CDS receives a data (management plan) question related to my fields of expertise I may be asked to take on the consultation. Did I mention the DCN?
How much of your job involves data curation?
Less than 5% I would say, but I am still waiting for the Big One: a huge data set of astronomical data saved in IDL (Interactive Data Language) format.
Why is data curation important to you?
It preserves scientific data in a reusable way for the ages. My own first published data set (light curves of Luminous Blue Variable stars) is from 1994 and has been available to add newer observations to for 31 years now. I like the idea that my research data and publications will be around longer than I will be.
Why is the Data Curation Network important?
It combines the curation expertise of specialists on every kind of research data and turned it into a hive mind that all of us can draw from. There isn’t a data set that we can’t properly describe and preserve!
If you weren’t doing data curation, what would you be doing?
I would curate my own pictures and videos. I keep three copies of everything. In different cloud services and on hard disks. I’m hard core.
What’s your favorite cuisine?
Thai. And I haven’t even tasted the authentic version in Thailand yet.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Working out in the FLX Fitclub: Bodypump and The Trip.Or cycling in the hills around Ithaca.I also like to grow my own vegetables in our 12’x35’ fenced in veggie garden.
What’s your favorite city?
Munich (Germany), the next city over from the town where I lived from 1996-2001. The city has a lot of green along the river Isar, plenty of beer gardens, lots of cultural offerings, and it is a good starting point for day trips to the foothills of the Alps.
Where would you most like to travel to next (state/country/continent/city)?
New Zealand for its pristine, rough nature and volcanos. I’ll keep dreaming.