Roy, Will this be videotaped? Or recorded in some way?

What will be the role of manually created structured metadata in future discovery systems,and what role will libraries play in the creation of such metadata?

Too bad I can't be there, but:
"Is the user search interface necessarily tied to 'the catalog'?"
And then: "Why can't there be different library 'catalogs' for different contexts, purposes, objects, etc.? (In fact, aren't there already?)"

I have an alternative to "Could one big catalog do it for everyone?" --

What are the considerations in balancing the desire for local autonomy with the network effect (the critical mass of users at which point social functions -- tagging, annotations, recommendation mining, etc. -- sustain themselves)

Sound like it will be a great panel, Roy!

The question I would ask is, "Given the success of 'mash-ups' in creating valuable new services by melding existing ones, when do you anticipate seeing catalogs with open, documented and powerful api's that will allow anyone to use the data that we are hiding behind our current catalog's walls?"

All excellent suggestions, thanks! I don't know if the program will be recorded in any way, but I'll ask.

I'd love to have the panel respond to the points raised by Thomas Mann in his writings, notably in his essay "The Peloponnesian War and the future of reference... (Sorry, the comments won't let me post a link). He convincingly details the superiority of a traditional library catalog as an info retrieval tool vs. tagging, federated searching, etc. Not to say that such tools are not valuable as much-needed enhancements to OPACs, but I would love to see empirical studies that measure the quality of information retrieved using traditional library catalogs vs. using only these alternative search methods. /Nick