Remember that many user studies have shown that the average user does not use the more complex functionality. I am personally skeptical about this concept. In addition, outside academia, government and larger businesses, there are many, many users who in the short to medium term are not fully networked, but are single users needing to manage a business, research, other activities on a single computer and peripherals. These users need the full capabilities of a powerful desktop workstation. This was seen as involving significantly extended library systems and services, in order for users to establish the right to access, perform actions on the items in a result set, to obtain documents, complete orders, manage copyright and licences, and obtain or make payments.
Further integration includes merging the results from multiple catalogues.
I would not agree with Slavko Manojlovich that the virtual library union catalogue is a myth, but a centrally controlled structure probably is. For many researchers the starting point may be an abstracting and indexing service, with links to full electronic text or location tools. It is important from the user point of view to hide database distinctions. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I would echo the comments of many speakers that we are faced with many opportunities and challenges. We heard a lot about the geeks who are creating our tools, and the library showcases demonstrated very well how these tools are being implemented.