@ELS@sfba.social This is probably overkill but my process (which I came up with for OpenSFHistory) is to create a catalog number(a prefix defines the format --slide photo, negative, etc), attach that number to the physical object (or an envelope of enclosure for negatives) create a spreadsheet with the numbers listed to record the metadata (a title description, date taken , and other details), scan the item, and name the file with the catalog number, Later in whatever catalog software (i use Adobe Lightroom) I can merge that metadata into the file itself.