Libraries--Chasing Their Own (Long) Tails?

In theory, libraries could be a casualty of the long tail because much like brick and mortar retailers they are limited in both geography and by what they are logistically able to keep in circulation. Weeding, the key to maintaining a robust circulation, is in fact counter-intuitive to the long tail premise. Library cooperatives, digitization of materials, and online access to the library system can help to lengthen the library's tail by extending collections beyond its phyiscal walls.

There is a limit, however, to how long a tail a library, even a cooperative supported library, can support. More and more people are used to creating their own niche market. One look at the average ipod playlist illustrates this well. Can libraries fulfill a person's every whim the way the internet can? Probably not. And while they can't duplicate the sheer volume of an itunes or an amazon, they can emulate the model.

How?

• Don't weed collections into oblivion. Work to circ.
• Be a proactive viral marketer. Virus don't originate in a vacuum. Be the mother virus.
• Identify your niche markets, including your micro-niche markets. Expand on them.
• Pimp your online resources. This is your best and easiest way to lengthen your tail. If it feels as easy to use as amazon and the results are comparable, the public is more likely to use it.
• Be aware of what is going on beyond Publisher's Weekly. Be out and about in the cybersphere. Borrow someone's tween or teen and ask them what they think.
• Accept your limitations--you are not ever going to be amazon. Never. Get over it.

All in all, I came away from the Anderson reading feeling that libraries were lucky that they were non-profits and not subject to the immediate economic effects of the long tail (i.e. Tower Records), but that they are not exempt from reacting to it.