Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
(InterPARES 2) revealed that professional photographers are aware of the role of
metadata embedded in image files to identify the who, what, where, when and why, of
the content and the context of the image-making event, along with important
copyright information and licensing parameters [17]. This is typically achieved
through the addition of technical metadata (e.g., Exif) and management metadata
(e.g., IPTC Core) during the activities of image capture, use and storage. An authentic
digital photograph possesses identity (i.e, the whole of the unique characteristics that
distinguish it from another photograph), such as information about the date(s) of
creation and transmission, name(s) of the photographer, camera make and model etc.,
and integrity (i.e., the quality of being whole and unaltered) [3], [4]. Integrity is
protected through procedures exercising control over transmission and access.
Unfortunately, the recent convergence of digital cameras into mobile phones, laptops
and tablets with Internet connectivity to cloud based services has provided the tools
and means for anyone to quickly create and store digital images; but, without the
awareness or concern of professional photographers and information professionals for
capturing metadata that contributes to record identity and integrity.
A recent study conducted by the Photo Metadata Working Group of the
International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) investigates the risk of
inadvertently deleting digital image metadata that contribute to record identity and
integrity during the management and use of digital images on photo-sharing and
social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter (<https://twitter.com>), Dropbox
(<https://www.dropbox.com>) and Flickr [18]. Their findings reveal that digital
image metadata are inconsistently supported across social media sites and that the two
most popular sites for sharing digital photographs, Flickr and Facebook remove
metadata from the image file header during procedures for saving a digital photograph
to a desktop and downloading a digital photograph using the menu controls provided
in the social media user-interface. The results of this study were discussed in the
United States Library of Congress “Signal Blog,” expressing concern over the trove
of visual heritage that is now being controlled by for-profit companies in the online
environment [19]. From an information management perspective, the removal of
metadata that contribute to the identity and integrity of the digital image, as well as
metadata that inform future users about the copyright and usage of the image is highly
problematic. Records managers and archivists that work with digital image
collections, both digitized and born digital, need to revisit existing strategies for
managing and preserving digital images as trustworthy records in light of new digital
imaging practices and online platforms that rely on cloud computing services.
Furthermore, archival institutions considering acquisition of digital image collections
from organizations and individuals, which use cloud-based services for storage need
to be aware that actions undertaken to download content out of the online platform
may remove metadata that establishes the provenance of the digital image collection
and its functional context. Additional challenges regarding the ownership of the user-
generated content (i.e., the copyright may be held by the account holder but the
platform provider has a license to use it) may need to be considered by archival
institutions prior to acquisition.
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