If you create, distribute or use digital images, you need metadata.
Everyone involved with digital images shares the challenge of tracking and managing their rapidly expanding collections. Images need embedded information about their ownership and content to facilitate use and protect them from misuse. This is now urgent given what we know about the high degree of infringements on the internet and the expected passage of 'orphan works' legislation.
Embedding metadata in our image files – and preserving it – is the key to addressing these challenges, but it is under-used and under-supported. What can be done about it?
In 2006, SAA published our Metadata Manifesto as a call to action that the stock industry – and indeed everyone who creates, distributes and uses digital imagery – urgently needs to commit to using embedded metadata to help protect and promote licensed use our images.
In 2007, SAA was awarded a Partnership from the U.S. Library of Congress to support and expand our efforts.
In 2008, SAA launched a MetaSurvey and we are preparing to share the findings.
About our Metadata Manifesto
This proposal calls for the industry wide adoption of guiding principles, standards and technology to promote image metadata use. In short, our “Manifesto” is three guiding principles:
- Metadata is essential to identify and track digital images.
- Ownership metadata must never be removed.
- Metadata must be written in formats that are understood by all.
Now, we need to take these guiding principles and put them into practice. This starts with industry wide commitment to use metadata. We then need to embrace metadata standards and best practices that have a consistent world-view approach. Finally, we need technology that makes it easy to embed metadata, preserve it, and facilitate tracking and rights management. SAA’s “Manifesto” concludes with a list of specific action steps forcreators, distributors and end users. Read the Manifesto
About the Library of Congress Award
Acknowledging SAA's leadership in promoting metadata use, the U.S. Library of Congress has awarded SAA a partnership with the Preserving Creative America initiative. SAA is tasked with developing a program of metadata education, with online resources and a multi-city seminar series. … more
About the MetaSurvey
Do stock images have embedded metadata? SAA is conducting a MetaSurvey to find out. Preliminary findings confirm what SAA has long suspected: Too many images in the licensing market lack key identifying and content information. … more
