Disadvantages to/Concerns with Embedding Complete Metadata 

1. Maintenance/synchronization of embedded data with external metadata sources.  example
   1. Are tools available to easily run and validate batch updates?
   2. Different metadata support, different metadata formats at various “levels” of description (collection, series, object, file)
   3. Multiple sources of metadata to draw from
   4. Complete absence of item-level (or file-level) metadata
   5. Unavailability of metadata at time of creation
   6. Inability to draw metadata from source
   7. Workflow issues: how often to update? How do we know to update embedded metadata if external metadata and image files (and any embedded metadata they contain) are maintained by different custodial groups? 
2. Data corruption
   1. Can embedded data be updated without affecting the integrity of the image data itself?
3. Accidental deletion
   1. If image files are migrated to a new file format, can seamless metadata migration be guaranteed?
   2. If images are not migrated to a new file format and the existing file can’t be opened, then any embedded metadata will likely be inaccessible as well
   3. Metadata is dropped during derivative creation or other maintenance activities