How to embed shelfmark and rights metadata in manuscript photographs

A manuscript photograph without its shelfmark is difficult to identify after it leaves its project folder. Embed the shelfmark and other descriptive information in working image files, then retain the catalog or sidecar record as a separate copy.

Where metadata lives: IPTC and XMP

Image files can carry several kinds of metadata. EXIF commonly records capture information such as exposure, lens, focal length, orientation, and time. IPTC Photo Metadata, often stored in XMP, supplies descriptive and rights fields. Support for reading those fields varies by photo tool, collection system, and operating system.

Copying a file normally preserves embedded metadata, but an export, website, messaging service, or image-processing tool may remove it. Check the exported file and keep a catalog or sidecar copy of information that cannot safely be lost.

Which fields to use

• Source: the person or organization that supplied the image.
• Credit Line: the wording the image provider asks a publisher to print beside the image.
• Title: a concise identity such as MS. Bodl. 264, fol. 12r. Headline is a separate IPTC field for a publishable synopsis.
• Creator: the photographer (you, or the institution's imaging service).
• Copyright / Rights usage terms: who granted reproduction rights, under what reference number, for which uses (academic print, online, exhibition), and for what dates. Record when rights were granted and when they expire.
• Description: what's on the page; this is what full-text search finds later.
• Keywords: controlled terms you'll filter by later, such as century, script, decoration, or provenance.

Tools that write IPTC/XMP

exiftool can batch-write these fields. Photo managers such as Adobe Bridge and Photo Mechanic also provide IPTC templates. Recto/Verso names fields used in manuscript work: institution, shelfmark, photographer, and a structured rights record with grantor, reference, dates, and permitted uses. Apply previews the proposed filenames, writes metadata into the opened images, and renames them to foliation. It does not crop or recompress the image pixels. Work on copies whenever you need untouched source files.

Two rules that save future-you

1. Keep embedded metadata and sidecars together when both exist. RAW workflows may rely on XMP sidecars, while working JPEG and TIFF files can carry embedded fields.
2. Record rights evidence at cataloging time, but check the permission letter and current policy again before publication. An embedded field records your assessment; it does not grant permission.