What data sets should be documented and which ones should not?
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. This includes data provided to engineers for studies, reported to regional or other larger organizations, or for cross-jurisdictional use. Metadata can be created at the project planning stage or while the data collection is in-progress. For current and future data efforts a description done in this way will provide immediacy to the documentation ensuring accurate and thorough documentation with the least difficulty. The memory of your organization about its data will be maximized and the effects of staff turnover and other changes will be minimized by having a complete history of the data.
