managing the long tail of content and users in academic libraries : new media in action

Managing the long tail of content and users in Academic Libraries :

New Media in Action

S.L.FaisalLibrarian

Kendriya Vidyalaya (Shift-I)Thiruvananthapuram

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

KLA National Seminar 2011, Thiruvananthapuram

Long Tail ?

•A business model•Coined by Chris Anderson in 2004•Published as a book in 2006


Traditional models of supply and demand

• Limited choice• Physical distribution channels have limited

capacity (Shelf space, theatre screens, broadcast spectrum, etc.)

• Serve limited pool of customers


“Culture of hits”


Economics of Long tail• Offer wide range of items• Digital/network technologies overcome limitations

of physical distribution channels• Virtual inventory delivered over the network• Cost of inventory management/distribution drops• Makes it economical to: Serve “network audience”


“Misses” outsell “Hits”

Products that are in low demand or have low sales volume (misses/niches)can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters (Hits).


Simplifying Long tail


Long tail of search


Long tail of learning


Why Librarians should bother ?Content• 10% of collection accounts for 90% of usage (Head)• Small proportion of items represent lion’s share of collecting

activity. From collection development standpoint, these are “hits” of library world.

• Rest of aggregate collection spread out over Long Tail • Unexplored/unidentified/hidden /untagged contents (Tail)Eg: an unidentified video on a freedom fighter, a piece of a letter written by a classical author


Why Librarians should bother ?Users• Number of physical users of the library reduces

drastically (Head)• Scattered but virtually connected potential users

of information outside the library increases exponentially (Tail)

Think about Wikipedia, Facebook, twitter, mobiles, ebooks…..


Why Librarians should bother ?Services• Physical content delivery channels (Head)• Library networks, web interfaces, Web 2.0

(Blogs, wikis, OPAC 2.0, CMS,E-learning systems (Tail)

Library blogs, learning wikis, online social networks


How to manage (harness) the Library long tail

Long tail of content• Ultimate catalogue: Every single item in the

library/network is catalogued with maximum meta tags• Making this inventory public and open through channels

in different formats for maximum.• Analyzing the popularity of items• Freedom to create content by the user



Long tail of Users• Profiling every user: bahaviour/usage

characteristics, technical competency and access to new media tools

• User studies to understand the needs and demands• Developing networks for communication,

collaboration and sharing with the users



Long tail of services• Design delivery models to reach out the user

at their own space and time (24X7)• Library Blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, Social

bookmarks, social networks, virtual reference, mobile interfaces


What Long tail management can do for Libraries ?

• Improves accessibility ( Expanded choice)• Permit new forms of scholarship• Weaves collections into general Web environment• Cooperative collection management (more

local/unexplored items) • Free up shelf space, removes redundancy, exploits

cheaper storage.


How it helps the users• Flexible with more choices and more formats• To find out the exact and sometimes hidden

information• Library meet the users at their own space and

time• Freedom to collaborate, create and share


So,LIBRARY LONG TAIL

helps to getEvery user his/her content

Every content its user


Thank youAny questions ?

managing the long tail of content and users in academic libraries : new media in action

Documents

userkla national seminar

library world

usersnumber of physical

academic libraries

inventory public

potential users of information

collection accounts

blockbusters hits