How to track image reproduction rights for publication

Image reuse can involve several independent questions: copyright in the depicted work, rights or licenses attached to the photograph, repository terms, privacy or publicity interests, contractual restrictions, and rules set by a publisher or funder. A rights record preserves the evidence you found. It does not replace a legal assessment.

The Library of Congress notes that collection rights statements may be incomplete or inaccurate, that the Library cannot grant permission for material it does not control, and that the user remains responsible for deciding whether a proposed use is lawful.

What to record from every grant

The permission may arrive as a formal license, an email from a curator, a line in a reader agreement, or a note on an invoice. Extract the same fields from all of them:

• Grantor: the institution and, if named, the person or office.
• Reference number: the license or invoice number; if the grant is an email, the date and sender serve as one.
• Date granted and expiry: record the term and any edition limit stated in the grant.
• Covered work and images: record the manuscript, folios, image identifiers, and whether the document covers a supplied reproduction or your own photograph.
• Permitted uses: record the named work or project, edition, media, territory, language, term, print run or distribution, open-access status, and whether crops, annotations, or other adaptations are allowed.
• Credit line: copy any wording specified by the institution or license.
• Fees and conditions: record the amount, payment status, delivery requirements, revocation terms, and any copy or notice the institution requires after publication.
• Authority and evidence: keep the source document, the policy URL, the item-level rights statement, and the date on which you checked them.

Attach the record to the images, not to a folder of paperwork

Keep the image, structured record, and supporting document linked by a stable filename or identifier:

1. A per-image record in the cataloging system, such as a spreadsheet keyed by filename. Include the fields above.
2. Selected facts embedded in a working file's IPTC/XMP fields. Embedded metadata may be stripped during export or upload, so it is a convenience rather than the sole record. See the metadata guide.

The publisher test

For each proposed figure, your record should identify the evidence, the exact permitted use, the required credit, any expiry or distribution limit, and unresolved questions. Recheck time-sensitive terms before final submission.

Doing this in Recto/Verso

Recto/Verso stores a grantor, reference number, date granted, expiry, and permitted-use flags for each image. The grid can filter those recorded statuses, and Apply can write selected information into working image files. These fields help find missing or expired records; they do not determine copyright, interpret a contract, or certify that publication is lawful.