what is a "next-generation" library catalog?

So, what is a “next-generation” library catalog?

About ten years ago a mailing list called NGC4Lib was created, and via a number of bullet points the list more or less posed the question, “What is a ‘next-generation’ library catalog?”: [1]

   * Who are the primary intended audiences for a library's
     "card catalog"?

   * Considering the changing nature of information access in an
     Internet environment, how is an electronic "card catalog" of
     today different from the one designed ten or fifteen years ago?

   * What kind of content should these "card catalogs" contain?

   * To what degree are these things "catalogs" (as in inventory
     lists), and to what degree are they finding aids?

   * To what degree should traditional cataloging practices be
     used in such a thing, or to what degree should new and upcoming
     practices such as FRBR be exploited?

   * How would such a thing get created and by whom?

   * What are some of the functionalities of "next generation"
     catalog?

Now that NGC4Lib is coming to an end, I hope we — the Library Community — have learned something. If so, then what have we learned? To what degree are we able to answer the primary question? What has happened/developed in the past ten years to inform our answers? Are we further along? Have we advanced knowledge and understanding? Has library service been improved? Was it worth it?

I invite you, — the community — to reflect, articulate, and share your thoughts. Maybe, sometime in the future, our ideas will form the basis of a historical description of librarianship near the beginnings of the 21st Century.

[1] unofficial NGC4Lib mailing list archives — http://serials.infomotions.com/ngc4lib/

—
Eric Lease Morgan