The "Guidelines for Handling Image Metadata" released by the Metadata Working Group in September 2008 suggest best practices for synchronizing and reconciling metadata values from the photo metadata standards IPTC-IIM, XMP and Exif.

As the IPTC has a stake in this work by specifying its IIM (Information Interchange Model) standard and the metadata schemas IPTC Core and IPTC Extension for XMP our association welcomes these Guidelines as clear advice to software companies to clarify issues involving unsynchronized metadata values. Further, the Guidelines align with the goals pointed out by the "Persisting Technical Photo Metadata" section of the IPTC Photo Metadata 2008 standards document.

The IPTC recommends that all adopters of IPTC standards follow the Guidelines of the Metadata Working Group and we encourage software vendors to follow their general guidelines not only for the properties mentioned in chapter 3 of the Guidelines document but also for other classes of metadata. In addition, the PLUS Coalition joins with IPTC in supporting the adoption of the Guidelines.

Further the IPTC and PLUS will support any future discussions of the Metadata Working Group related to IPTC and PLUS metadata standards, which may evolve into updated versions of the current Guidelines document or into new Guidelines that address an extended set of metadata properties.

London (England), 10 October 2008