Anderson and Libraries

Libraries are not for-profit institutions. Annual budgets, whether for a public library or an academic one, are designed to be renewed annually, not as seed money to foster self sustenance. Maybe more simply put, libraries are black holes for money. But this isn’t a bad thing. Like any public service, a library operates for the convenience and as a service to its clientele. Because of this relative freedom to act without the idea of turning a profit libraries are in a very good position to exploit the long tail of their collections. Of course there are logistical problems with maintaining analog collections (space, staffing) it behooves a library to digitize its collections to mitigate the concerns of maintaining analog collections.

So maybe the question becomes how a library will serve its customers in the future. Undoubtedly libraries are becoming and will continue to become both digital and brick and mortar entities. Should a library digitize the long tail of its collections or should a library digitize the short head, as Anderson calls it, and make room to accommodate long-tail materials?

Anderson has simple rules for a thriving long tail industry. Make everything available and make it findable. Believe it or not I think libraries have somewhat accidentally worked their way into an advantageous situation. Libraries have built-in cataloging systems to make everything findable and for at least the last 15 years have been moving toward digitizing collections. What’s interesting is how Anderson relates the cultural bias of the Dewey Decimal System. This will be a handicap to libraries that by digitizing their collections are suddenly becoming world entities. No longer is Smalltown Public Library just serving the needs of its community but may find their digital collections browsed and researched by students all over the world.