the information is evolving with the medium itself. In order to avoid infinite regress and ask questions about the usefulness of metadata as an aid to finding information, the participants of the OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop 22 recast this question into: how can a simple metadata record be defined that sufficiently describes a wide range of electronic objects? Once the link between access and preservation is understood, then resource discovery (finding things) was, and is, the single most important need that metadata can satisfy. The sheer volume of data [on-line] means that there is far more information than professional abstractors, indexers and cataloguers can manage using existing methods and systems. It is now becoming obvious that metadata needs to be generated at the point of creation of a digital resource. Authors and information providers need a means to describe the resources themselves, without having to undergo the extensive training required to create records conforming to established archival standards. It is important not to forget that archival communities already catalogue a vast amount of information. Effective standards and proven practices for providing description and access to various types of resources have been used for so long that there is considerable resistance to the idea that they should simplify mature approaches so that they can be used by ordinary people on-line. During the life of The Flight of Ducks there have been four developmental metadata workshops. The first was held in Dublin (Ohio) and gave its name to a simple set of 13