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Sometimes catalog businesses have customers who feel more comfortable with an online version of their printed catalog than an eCommerce site. In such cases it can be a good user experience to have those available online. However, I would not allow them to be indexable. I'm assuming the products are all available on product pages in the eCommerce site, which is where I would focus my efforts. The online version of the printed catalog in PDF (Other formats, such as flash or AJAX work well too) should just be a feature for users, not necessarily for search.

excellent, thanks Robert!