Metadata is important for Family History Projects, but don’t let it scare you

Image metadata creates a minimum standard to convey information should it ever be disconnected from the context of your collection and stories. Using effectively can get nerdy — it doesn't have to be

I think of metadata as the lowest common denominator to convey information about an image file. I use it as a platform-independent means to transport known information. AI can tell that it’s a gathering of people and it might even be able to estimate the date. The most important things to convey in metadata, however, are those that I’m sure of and that image recognition cannot supply — people’s names and occasions, for example.

I hope you’ll join us on December 5th, when we host a Tutorial Tuesday with Caroline Guntur, the Swedish Organizer. If you can’t make the free talk, catch up later with the recording available to Projectkin subscribers, and membership is free.

This will be an informal conversation that should help demystify the topic. “EXIF? IPTC Photo Metadata? XMPs? WOT?” With a range of platforms and tools offering specialized ways to insert metadata into files, there’s a lot of noise out there that can be confusing.

Don’t worry, it’s not much more complicated than a virtual tag dangling from a file. We’ll make sure you get not only a grounding in the key ideas but also the context to understand how to make metadata part of your routine.

My guest, Caroline Guntur is not only an expert photo manager, she’s also one of the most respected coaches in the delicate art of the workflow.

This is personal for me.

At Ponga, we created a simple and easy way to both organize the photos in your family history collection — and use them to tell stories. While we protected and preserved image metadata, we did not offer a way to modify it. (Product decisions in a startup can be brutal.) If we had, it would have been a convenient way to export the organizational information the software so elegantly created. That platform is now offline, but these are lessons I carry with me into my personal family history projects.

Discussions of metadata can easily send you down rabbit holes chasing nerdy superlatives. I look at arguments about metadata formats like signs indicating a gas line — and dig my rabbit holes elsewhere.

I appreciate that the IPTC specification used by journalists for decades has problems for family historians, for example. I monitor the efforts of the Family History Metadata Working Group (FHMWG) to encourage the use of metadata and drive improvements through standards bodies, but that’s not where I add value.

I’m honored to have so many experts now part of our community lending their insights to guide us all. I’m particularly excited to have Caroline speaking with us as this background is so foundational. As a compliment to this talk, she has a terrific series of free recorded talks on her website that form a framework for success in organizing photos.

If this is all new to you and feels overwhelming, don’t worry. I’m right there with you. Stay curious, ask questions, and keep learning.