This paper is based on the British Library doctoral placement project, ‘Developing an enhanced curation framework for contemporary hybrid archives’ (2022), which investigated the digital archives of two contemporary British writers, Andrea Levy and Will Self. It aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the writers' material life through close reading of its digital reflection, and to develop a practical method for using digital archives to enhance collection curation. By analysing the metadata of the writers' manuscripts and working documents, the project has unveiled more details about their working lives and professional relationships. The findings of this project may be valuable for researchers interested in contemporary writers working with hybrid or born-digital manuscripts and archives. These findings, apart from writer-specific knowledge, include a range of metadata analytic methods and workflows, further research possibilities, and how material or hybrid collection research may be inspired by digital archive research.
