Is There a Future for Bibliographic Databases?

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Is There a Future for Bibliographic Databases?
Professional databases, such as Books in Print (BiP), WorldCat (WC), Ulrich's or the Serials Directory (SD), have been a valuable tool for researchers. But as this author argues, they are facing increasing pressure from companies like Google and Amazon, enough that they will have to change or die. In order to prevent being replaced by free services, the author argues, these databases will have to be a lot better than the competition - not just a little better, but pervasively better. More...