Variation in accuracy, completeness, or consistency can contribute to lower quality metadata records. Hughes (2006), when looking at OLAC records, rightly points out that coverage (quantity of elements per record) is one way to estimate record quality. However, all three impact end-user perceptions about records and their associated resources.

For OLAC the question is how can it reward data contributors for high quality metadata and also detect low quality metadata while correcting or enhancing low quality?