Libraries and the Future of Search

Libraries have traditionally created records classifying and describing sources of information which are then organized into a system used to retrieve or locate those sources. Google, in contrast, is focused on creating a search engine that in theory would alter or eliminate the need to organize records. Are these strategies in direct competition or are they leading to some mutual system? Is Google's approach a realistic expectation given the technological, business, social, political, and legal trends of today? Assuming the creation of this or a similar capability, what will it mean for the future of searching in libraries? Will it negate the need to continue organizing or classifying records and replace it with a system that instead, essentially catalogs and classifies the user? This article looks at these issues and tries to determine what we can expect for the future of search.