Metadata tensions: A case study of library principles vs. everyday scientific data practices

Data sharing requirements and mandates are becoming more common, and many institutions are investigating data curation methods. Metadata are a critical component to any institutional scientific data curation initiative. As libraries and other information institutions become more active in this area, a number of metadata challenges will arise. In this paper we discuss four important issues: 1) the ambiguous responsibility for metadata creation between information professionals, working scientists, and hardware/software tools, 2) the tension between the highly principled library metadata approach and the ad hoc everyday practices of working researchers, 3) the ways that metadata creation and knowledge are distributed socially in research settings, and 4) the role of metadata at different stages of the data life cycle. We illustrate how they are manifested in a case study of data and metadata management in a large science and technology research center.