AbstractGood “quality metadata supports the functional requirements of the system it is designed to support” (Guy, Powell, & Day, 2004). Researchers (e.g., Moen, Stewart, and McClure, 1997; Bruce & Hillman, 2004) have identified evaluation criteria and issues surrounding metadata evaluation. This panel further explores metadata quality and evaluation challenges. Specific topics covered include how metadata specialists (library catalogers) utilize available rich content designation for MARC bibliographic records and professional metadata creators—and the identification of evaluation criteria; means for comparing metadata generated by resource authors, automatic metadata generation applications; and two National Science Foundation National Science Digital Library (NSF‐NSDL) projects: a tripartite evaluation involving a metadata quality study, an information retrieval study, and a metadata user study; and a quality assessment of metadata records contributed by members to the NSDL.