Data producers and users cannot afford to be without documented data. The initial expense of documenting data clearly outweighs the potential costs of duplicated or redundant data generation. Recently developed metadata standards provide a systematic way to collect metadata. When producing a map, the cartographer must organize all the descriptive information that goes into the map legend in a particular format. Titles are put in a specific place, tic marks are made a certain way, meters may be used instead of feet, and so forth.
Metadata standards are simply a common set of terms and definitions that describe geospatial data.
These standards provide a consistent approach and format for the description of data characteristics. The standards were developed over a two-year period, with extensive review by professionals at all levels of government. The FGDC is also sponsoring the creation of a National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse which will point users toward the best spatial data for a particular project. The intent is not to centralize all geographic data in one location, but to provide links through the Internet to distributed sites where data are produced or maintained. Managers who document data using the metadata standards will provide these metadata to the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse so that users can easily find data.