Library catalogues have been recognised as an important source for studying book production and knowledge exchange. The bibliographic data stored within them is increasingly regarded as research data for quantitative analysis. This data, however, presents researchers with challenges, since they are using it for purposes different from those originally intended. This paper identifies some of these challenges and presents practical solutions used to address them through two exemplary workflows that leverage the potential of the Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (VD17), or German retrospective national bibliography for the seventeenth century. These workflows illuminate the ways in which the VD17 metadata standard and scholarly interventions to facilitate use of bibliographic data for historical research can shape our view of the past.