riding the long tail

The question is: how do libraries/librarians fill roles as Chris Anderson’s (2006) new producers, new markets, and new tastemakers?

It's a big one. Here's my simplistic guess:

Libraries don’t have long-tail thinking built into their basic architecture and traditional mission statements, since they arose in times of (relative) info scarcity. At one point, libraries were hits. Now, they're kind of a niche -- or a meta-niche, maybe, since they provide for multiple niches at once.

Libraries/ians can be new producers both by enabling patrons to produce (making AV equipment available, teaching software classes, providing Web design books, etc.) and by producing their own things: library blogs, wikis, multimedia tutorials, etc.

They can be among the new markets by essentially serving as aggregators for almost any type of published material, and – in some cases – by aggregating trendy technologies as well. Even if many patrons are not first introduced to new gadgets or materials at their libraries, they can get their hands on them and learn more about them.

They can be new trendsetters by serving as multi-faceted filters -- not like in the good old days of being smug authorities about limited information, but in the way they display collections, by the programs they present, by their recommendations, by steering patrons in reference interviews, and possibly by providing for collaborative filtering (social bookmarking) -- not to replace catalogers, but to add a new dimension to their collections.

Librarians can't be the rock stars they used to be, and the future of this business is uncertain. That would really be a problem if we couldn't be flexible or get excited by new toys.


Anderson, C. (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. New York: Hyperion.