Online Catalogs-What's the Message? (1,049 words)

The eventual impact of the Internet and e-commerce is probably beyond any of our current ideas or thinking. I say this because while some currently view the Internet as another technological advance, others, myself included, see it as a major watershed in human history.

To really understand the Internet one should recall Marshall McLuhan's postulate from his book "Understanding Media." In it, McLuhan writes the line he's most famous for: "The medium is the message." That is how we need to look at the Internet, and how it will affect cataloging. It, not the content, is the message.