However, some more questions might make the answer to this question more apparent. The answers to all of these questions can be found in the metadata. The cost of creating and maintaining FGDC compliant metadata can vary according to the investment that your organization would like to make in managing your data resources and making those resources available for use. One thing that is important to remember is the savings that can be realized by protecting the investment in your data over time by having a permanent record of the structure of the databases, procedures used in data collection or creation and all of the other information retained incomplete data documentation. The largest cost is the initial implementation.
Most organizations have a good deal of undocumented data in their organization.
Although there are software tools available at no cost, learning the content standard and implementing the tools and documenting existing data can be time consuming and costly. Again the answer to this varies. To create uniform in-house metadata an understanding enough to provide consistent information to simplify later use and to make the metadata accessible to any search mechanisms either within your local organization, region or larger area. Certainly any data that you have that will be maintained or archived for a long period of time. Any data that often need to be transferred or shared with other organizations should be documented as well.