Memorial File Format and Metadata Handoff Checklist

Direct answer and scope

Request a file manifest rather than a format verdict. The manifest can list each requested asset and its role, such as a documented master, an approved display copy, an export, or a supporting description. It can also state whether a format description has been supplied, whether metadata has been designated private or displayable, whether a rights note has been written, and whether an independently readable copy has been identified. An unanswered item should remain unresolved rather than being marked complete.

The handoff may include a version map showing which file is intended to serve each stated role. The personal-digital-records guidance supports deciding which versions have long-term value, using descriptive names, organizing files, and documenting the folder structure. It does not establish how many versions a commission must contain or require a particular format, resolution, color space, layer structure, or naming convention.

The scope is documentation and questioning. It does not include requesting or examining a photograph, device, account, upload, filename, folder, or file path. It does not inspect readability, convert files, select a preferred version, determine image quality, or establish ownership, authorship, permission, or legal status.

How to use the official evidence

Use the Library of Congress personal-digital-archiving guidance as a method reference for inventory and documentation. For a photograph, ask whether the relevant source location has been identified and whether the source file and version to be used have been documented. For hosted memorial material, ask whether an independently readable export has been identified, what it contains, and which metadata accompanies it. The guidance does not establish that a hosted service provides an export, that a saved page is complete, or that an export preserves functionality.

Use the records and photograph guidance to separate a preservation copy from a display copy. Ask whether a copy outside the commissioned service exists and whether the parties have a process for checking copies for readability. The guidance recommends multiple copies in different locations and periodic readability checks, but it does not approve a particular medium, location, provider, recovery method, or replacement schedule for every file.

Use the National Archives material as an optional naming and backup reference, not as a commission standard. Consistent alphanumeric names with separators such as hyphens or underscores are described as one approach, and basic metadata may describe who, what, where, and when. The three-copy, two-media, one-off-site model can be recorded as a planning reference while each copy and location remains an evidence state to be confirmed.

Decision framework

Start with the asset inventory. Identify the categories of material that the handoff is intended to cover, such as a source image, commissioned portrait, approved display version, or export of hosted material. Record the role requested for each item without adding a file or feature that has not been supplied. The inventory should say where the important material is understood to exist, while leaving its completeness unresolved.

Next, create a version map. Ask which item is designated as the master, which is approved for display, which is an export, and which document explains the set. These labels describe different decisions; they do not prescribe a file format or prove that a file is the highest-quality, authentic, restorable, or suitable for a particular reproduction. Where multiple versions exist, the source guidance supports asking which version is intended for preservation without selecting or grading it.

Then document names, folders, and metadata at the level needed for the handoff. A private metadata decision can identify which descriptive information should accompany preservation copies and which information should not be displayed. The record should not require publishing a person's name, relationship, date, location, biography, or image description. A folder-manifest question can ask whether the structure has been described without collecting the underlying personal material.

Finally, separate readability from rights. A readability or copy status can state whether an independent copy has been identified and whether a check has been documented. A rights note can separately identify the source material, creator, deliverables, and intended reproduction or display permissions. Copyright guidance states that copyright protects original works once fixed and that owning a copy does not by itself establish copyright ownership; it does not decide the status of a particular portrait or source photograph.

Limits and what to verify next

The supplied evidence does not validate a portrait artist, digital-memorial vendor, hosting platform, QR provider, domain operator, processor, product, account-control arrangement, export, file format, backup, restore process, privacy practice, succession path, price, availability, review, or turnaround. Those values should remain unknown until a separate primary-evidence manifest is available. Nothing in the preservation guidance endorses a vendor, platform, format, cloud host, QR system, portrait workflow, or memorial service.

Before accepting a handoff, request the unresolved documents or statements relevant to the intended use: the asset and version list, the format manifest if one is available, the metadata privacy decision, the folder or export description, the readability or copy status, and the rights note. Verify each item with the responsible party rather than treating possession of a file, a live memorial, or a copy as proof of permission, ownership, completeness, continuity, or preservation.

Preservation is an active review process. Official guidance recommends periodic checks that selected files remain readable and recommends maintaining copies in different locations. Those recommendations do not guarantee that a file will remain readable, that a service will remain available, that a copy can be restored, or that any particular storage arrangement is independent. Contract, copyright, privacy, export, backup, and continuity questions therefore remain separate evidence states.

Questions people ask

Use these questions to request a documented handoff without asking for a photograph, account, upload, filename, or other personal material. Each answer should identify what has been documented and leave unsupported items unresolved.

Evidence behind this page

Each point below is restricted to what the cited primary source supports. Administrative listing status is not a quality endorsement.