When I think about the library "catalog" I think that it will contain more than just metadata about library materials but also the materials themeselves. Think mostly books, journal articles, encyclopedia articles, definitions, images, data sets, etc. Moreover, the library "catalog" will enable people to do things with the items in the collection. It is more than just find and get.
Are research libraries imperiled? Is the Internet driving a stake into their hearts? Maybe. Google, Science Direct, Factiva, and PubMed all “eliminate the middleman,” meaning us librarians. The richer the database, and the better the search interface, the less our customers need us. This is not a bad thing! This is a good thing! We want to be disintermediated! Almost every responsibility that we assume today, and every task we assume tomorrow, should be undertaken in the hope that one day our work will be done, or that we will be superseded by new, user-friendly systems of self-help. So. Is the Library dead? Yes. And then again, No.
Karen Coyle helps the Open Library team navigate the twisty paths of the forest that is library metadata. A little while ago, we were lucky to have her present her view of its origins at the Internet Archive. I thoroughly enjoyed her presentation and I thought someone else might so I've rewritten my notes from the session as an exciting love-and-death-style account of librarianship over the years.