The death, and rebirth, of the metadata record - rethinking library search

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the issues with libraries' current approach to utilizing metadata and metadata records from a user perspective, and to suggest future directions in utilizing metadata records in a search context.Design/methodology/approach – Experiential commentary.Findings – Metadata records need to be reborn as surrogate tools that can be used to provide better search results.Originality/value – This paper opinionates on the traditions that libraries bring to providing search and retrieval tools, and how those traditions need to evolve in order for libraries to continue to provide useful search services in the digital context. It should be of interest to digital library developers, librarians, and information scientists.