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Abstract
Databases are replacing card catalogs and printed indexes, and although libraries and publishers have had access to the same technology, automation has proceeded at different rates and in different directions. The online catalog, produced by member libraries, differs from the bibliographic databases, published by indexing and abstracting services, in production, design, subject access, and search language. Both serve their primary purposes, but the online catalog cannot remain a "librarian's database" and must break with the traditions of the card catalog for the sake of technology and the library user.