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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ786510 |
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Table of Contents:
- Serving the Niche: Viewing Libraries through Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" Lens Mossman, Katherine Libraries Library Services Users (Information) Information Scientists Librarians Books Information Dissemination The increasingly famous "Long Tail" is essentially a modernized version of the 80/20 rule, something with which most have at least a passing familiarity. The rule (credited to Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th-century philosopher) hypothesized, for example, that 80 percent of the property in Italy was owned by 20 percent of its citizens. That rule is now turned on its head, Chris Anderson observed in his groundbreaking article "The Long Tail" in "Wired" magazine (10/05). Chris Anderson uses the "Long Tail" to describe the economic models of online businesses such as Amazon.com, NetFlix, and Rhapsody, which thrive on selling fewer of a larger variety of objects to more people than brick-and-mortar stores can. Librarians have taken note of Anderson's work because libraries were, in fact, among the first entities to serve niche markets. In "The Long Tail," Anderson is mainly concerned with the profitmaking possibilities that exist in niche markets. Although libraries do not strive for profit, they would not have survived all this time if all they had offered were the Danielle Steels and John Grishams of the publishing landscape. Through their own deep, historical collections and far-reaching services like interlibrary loan and email document delivery, libraries can offer their customers access to an extensive number and variety of materials.