Eric Lease Morgan University of Notre Dame

With the advent of commodity-priced, globally networked computers, the information environment has obviously changed.

 The availability of full-text indexing techniques have made “hand-crafted” metadata records less necessary  Content is increasingly “born digital” and accessible beyond one’s own walls  Storage costs have plummeted allowing everybody to access the collection locally

 Collection – Done by bibliographers and can be supplemented through the use of databases  Preservation – Done by archivists, and is most challenging in the current environment  Organization – Done by cataloguers and can be supplemented by databases and XML  Re-distribution – Done by reference librarians and can use intelligent interfaces to indexes

The catalogue will be less about inventory and ownership. Instead it will be more about access and usefulness.

annotate buy cite compare & contrast count occurrence of idea create flip book create tag cloud discuss do morphology elaborate find more like this one find similar & different get graph highlight map print rank reformat remove from my list renew save to my list search content of search my list share summarize trace citation forward & backward trace idea forward & backward translate

 Create tag cloud – graphically compare & contrast texts  Create flip book – provide alternative ways to search & browse materials  Annotate and share – exploit the wisdom of the crowds

Libraries are always members of larger hosting communities. Learn how to take advantage of this fact and put searches against the catalogue into the user’s context.

Database and indexes are two sides of the same information retrieval coin. Databases are great for maintaining content. Indexes are great at search. Learn how to exploit the strengths of both to create powerful information systems.

“Next-generation” library catalogue systems have more things in common than differences. They all ingest content, index it, and provide services against the index.

 Index everything: books, journals, images, etc.  Make sure your content is accessible to the Big Three  Consider adding open access content  Apply your “library eye” to incoming queries  Repurpose the system by exploiting Service- oriented architectures and REST-ful computing techniques

There are enormous opportunities for librarianship requiring a shift in attitudes and skills as well as time spent investigating ways to exploit the current environment. A rising tide floats all boats.