Anderson's Long Tail

Is the library world as a whole set to benefit from the Long Tail?

The Anderson reading discusses the cultural shift from a world of big hits to one full of endless niches, where the digital age has helped transform the market place and contributed to the growth of long tail industries. Once restricted by the constraints of shelf space, the internet has limitless potential and provides the capability of providing consumers with more choices. No longer is the list of choices comprised of the most popular selections, marketers can now provide an infinite list of items.

With such a robust number of selections, consumers are also contributing to the growth of the long tail by branching out from the traditional hit list and choosing items in less demand. The total number of these niche selections equate to a large portion of today's market place. The long tail phenomenon is evident in countless industries such as cable/satellite television, the downloading of music, and Sirius/XM radio.

New techie gadgets such as the iPod, Tivo, and DVR are also contributing to the growth of the long tail. These devices enable users to make many more selections; The average iPod can store more than 30,000 songs similarly Tivo and the DVR can hold hundreds of your favorite television shows and movies.The ipod also has contributed to the growth of the long tail in the library world. For example, the ebook enables consumers to download audible books to the device.

The library world has also benefited from the effects of the long tail by utilizing peer to peer networks to better advertise the books in their collection. Viral marketing amongst these social networks in conjunction with the use of suggested reading lists have also contributed to the increased popularity of those lesser known novels. Gone are the days where catalogs are updated once a year, electronic catalogs have dramatically lowered the costs of these updates while also allowing them to be completed in fast and efficient manner. I am simply amazed at the lengths of which this long tail has grown. It is difficult to find industries to which it has not affected in some way. However, with the mention of the long tail in the areas of national security it is clear that not all of these effects are positive.