Cataloging the Internet

[weibel at oclc.org]

It is not the role of Librarians to catalog books or home pages, but
rather to bring to the information landscape an organizational
coherence that supports the information needs of our clientele.

Think of resource description as an ecology with many niches.  Yahoo
will fill some of those niches.  MARC Catalogs will fill others.  A
variety of finding aids will grow de novo to fill still other niches.

Librarianship is not dead, but it will change more rapidly than most of
us are comfortable with.   We must learn how to meet the changing needs
of our patrons, and part of that will involve the evolution of resource
description for electronic objects.

Libraries have never tried to catalog everything, and they should not
do so now (as if we could).  What we should be doing is identifying
information resources that make a difference to our clientele, and
adding organizational value, just as we have been doing in the paper
world.

Know your patrons.  Develop the niche.  Remember the Dodo bird.

Stuart Weibel
Senior Research Scientist
OCLC Office of Research
weibel at oclc.org
(614) 764-6081 (v)
(614) 764-2344 (f)
http://www.oclc.org:5046/~weibel