The Red Queen and the library catalog

Abstract

This article contends that the library catalog and the traditional function of cataloging will soon cease to exist. This is because there is a revolution in progress that will overthrow traditional catalogs and cataloging, breaking them down into their component parts, exploding and transforming them into several different pieces of the new information landscape. This revolutionary transformation will democratize the responsibility for the organization of information, similar to the process of democratization of the information publishing process brought about by the widespread embrace of the Internet as a communication medium.