  Storing data is easy, but finding and using data is not. It is desirable that
the data is stored in a structured format, which can be preserved and retrieved
in future. Creating Metadata for the data is one way of creating structured
data formats. Metadata can provide Multidisciplinary data access and will
foster more robust scientific discoveries. In the recent years, there has been
significant advancement in the areas of scientific data management and
retrieval techniques, particularly in terms of standards and protocols for
archiving data and metadata. New search technologies are being implemented
around these protocols, which makes searching easy, fast and yet robust.
Scientific data is generally rich, not easy to understand, and spread across
different places. In order to integrate these pieces together, a data archive
and an associated metadata is generated. This data should be stored in a format
that can be locatable, retrievable and understandable, more importantly it
should be in a form that will continue to be accessible as technology changes,
such as XML.
