diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/worker.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/worker.py
index d059d7e34c..c335cc4c13 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/worker.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/worker.py
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ class SaveWorker(Thread):
                         if isbytestring(fpath):
                             fpath = fpath.decode(filesystem_encoding)
                         formats[fmt.lower()] = fpath
-            data[i] = [opf, cpath, formats]
+            data[i] = [opf, cpath, formats, mi.last_modified.isoformat()]
         return data
 
     def run(self):
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/save_to_disk.py b/src/calibre/library/save_to_disk.py
index f7f5559412..709e3645a6 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/save_to_disk.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/save_to_disk.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ from calibre.ebooks.metadata.opf2 import metadata_to_opf
 from calibre.constants import preferred_encoding
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata import fmt_sidx
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata import title_sort
+from calibre.utils.date import parse_date
 from calibre import strftime, prints, sanitize_file_name_unicode
 
 plugboard_any_device_value = 'any device'
@@ -42,6 +43,8 @@ FORMAT_ARG_DESCS = dict(
         publisher=_('The publisher'),
         timestamp=_('The date'),
         pubdate=_('The published date'),
+        last_modified=_('The date when the metadata for this book record'
+            ' was last modified'),
         id=_('The calibre internal id')
         )
 
@@ -191,6 +194,9 @@ def get_components(template, mi, id, timefmt='%b %Y', length=250,
         format_args['timestamp'] = strftime(timefmt, mi.timestamp.timetuple())
     if hasattr(mi.pubdate, 'timetuple'):
         format_args['pubdate'] = strftime(timefmt, mi.pubdate.timetuple())
+    if hasattr(mi, 'last_modified') and hasattr(mi.last_modified, 'timetuple'):
+        format_args['last_modified'] = strftime(timefmt, mi.last_modified.timetuple())
+
     format_args['id'] = str(id)
     # Now format the custom fields
     custom_metadata = mi.get_all_user_metadata(make_copy=False)
@@ -373,10 +379,14 @@ def save_serialized_to_disk(ids, data, plugboards, root, opts, callback):
     root, opts, length = _sanitize_args(root, opts)
     failures = []
     for x in ids:
-        opf, cover, format_map = data[x]
+        opf, cover, format_map, last_modified = data[x]
         if isinstance(opf, unicode):
             opf = opf.encode('utf-8')
         mi = OPF(cStringIO.StringIO(opf)).to_book_metadata()
+        try:
+            mi.last_modified = parse_date(last_modified)
+        except:
+            pass
         tb = ''
         try:
             failed, id, title = do_save_book_to_disk(x, mi, cover, plugboards,