Catalog searching

I've been thinking a lot about search recently, in response to the recent article on Stupid Users in Library Journal. I think pretty much everyone is aware of my cataloger tendencies, but what I'm thinking about these days is something else: quality cataloging makes up for bad search capabilities, but good search makes up for little or no cataloging.

I know this isn't a new idea. Heck, Our Friend Google is making a lot of people very happy and very rich. However, libraries don't seem to be catching the drift. ILS vendors especially don't seem to be catching the drift, because ultimately we can only search with the tools they provide us.

Of course, the next step is, "What can I/we do about the issue of search?" and I just don't have any good ideas on that right at the moment.

WDT