Presenter George Pearson takes a humorous but scholarly look at the "rise, fall, and possible rise again" of the OPAC. George points out that the OPAC is a product of the industrial age. The OPAC is primarily a finding tool for the library user, not a discovery tool like Google. Searching the catalog has always been an "unpleasant" solitary experience. In the mid 90s the nature of information changed (a paradigm shift) and users became the center of the universe. "The 1.0 catalog is now in a 2.0 World." George points out that today's users see no distinctions between catalogs, databases and websites. They want a simple search interface that provides "a one stop shopping experience" with social networking being a major component . George provides numerous examples of library OPACS today which are adapting to meet user demands. He then goes on to make several predictions about the OPAC's future. For one, he sees a move towards data consolidation. Old formats will become obsolete. Some libraries will not have local OPACs. Libraries will send out their metadata....etc. He ended the session by reminding librarians that they are not a format, but a service.--"Librarians have skills, knowledge...peculiarly fitted for the Information Age."

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