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This paper proposes changes in the use of the catalog and the model upon which it rests. The first section describes why these changes are necessary if the library is to transition effectively into the digital age, including: the disruptive context caused by technological change; the costs associated with the catalog; the changing nature of information, how it is delivered, and who takes responsibility for organizing and describing it; and dimensions in which metadata varies from the catalog record, e.g., specialization, decentralization, and democratization. The second section describes one dimension of a new data model--event-awareness--and why it must be an important component of a new cataloging model. This section focuses on the following issues: the move away from relatively fixed physical artifacts to generally fluid digital objects; the difficulty of establishing integrity, trust, and authenticity in the networked environment; and the decentralization and specialization of resource description and problems of mapping among these descriptive vocabularies. The third section provides th