This article has been developed from our UKSG Conference breakout session ‘What is all this fuss about? Is wrong metadata really bad for libraries and their end-users?’ held in Glasgow in April 2018. The aim of the session was to develop an understanding of the issues caused by poor quality metadata in library workflows. We showed how poor metadata affects libraries’ end-users despite the efforts of librarians to provide them with the best service by investing in expensive content and discovery systems. We highlighted the main challenges, why this matters and the impact that inadequate metadata is having, and concluded with some recommendations for stakeholders. In this session we asked the audience to write down and share with us similar issues concerning or affecting them, and some of these anonymous anecdotes are shared throughout the article. The complete responses can be found in the appendix at the end.
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