Automatic Exposure: Capturing Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images Günter Waibel Program Officer RLG, Inc. This RLG-led initiative seeks to minimize the cost of technical metadata acquisition and maximize the cultural heritage community's capability of ensuring long-term access to digital assets. The goal of the initiative is to lower the barrier for institutions to capture the data elements specified in NISO Z39.87: Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images (currently a Draft Standard for Trial Use). NISO Z39.87 defines a standard, comprehensive set of data elements key to an institution's ability to manage and preserve its digital images. The project has engaged device manufacturers to determine what technical metadata their products currently capture and to encourage greater capture of Z39.87-defined technical metadata. It also engages cultural heritage professionals to determine how digital repositories and asset management systems can ingest technical metadata that is automatically captured by high-end scanners and digital cameras. This session will discuss the work of the project, including: identified tools for harvesting technical metadata; upcoming “Automatic Exposure Scorecards” which profile and review the available technologies for capturing technical metadata; progress in influencing technical metadata changes in technology standards followed by device manufacturers; and the development of a Z39.87-Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) panel to allow the extension of the metadata handling capabilities of Adobe Photoshop, a commonly used tool in the cultural heritage digitization process. Handout (Word document) http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=2681