[[Steve O'Connell]] gives one reason for the use of XML in databases: the increasingly common use of XML for [[transport layer|data transport]], which has meant that "data is extracted from databases and put into XML documents and vice-versa".<ref name=oconnell2005>{{cite report|author=O'Connell, Steve|work=Advanced Databases Course Notes|title="Section 9.2"|type=Syllabus|date=2005|publisher=[[University of Southampton]]|___location=Southampton, England}}</ref>{{update inline|date=March 2015}} It may prove more efficient (in terms of conversion costs) and easier to store the data in XML format. In content-based applications, the ability of the native XML database also minimizes the need for extraction or entry of metadata to support searching and navigation.
