One the challenges of a huge conference like ALA is that there is so much going on, so much information being presented, that one (me) needs some time to process what was heard/seen/experienced. It’s now 14 ½ hours after my day started here and I’m trying to process what happened. How do I sum up a 3-hour presentation in this short space? The answer? It’s not going to be short.

OCLC sponsored a symposium today: “Mining the Long Tail: Libraries, Amazoogle and Infinite Availability.” It began with Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine. In October 2004 he wrote an article titled “The Long Tail.” I’m having a hard time explaining the long tail without a picture. But think of it this way: When considering movies, there is a core selection that makes up the bulk of what is viewed. And if the movies were ranked and put in order of popularity (purchase/rental) in a graph, the graph would start high with the big box-office superstars, continue to slope downward through the popular mainstays, and then end with a long tail of those movies that are ranked low in popularity. Not just low, some may rarely see the light of day.

What we find now, is that the items in that long tail gain popularity out of nowhere. How? Recommendations. Consider Amazon.com’s “others who purchases this book, also purchased…” Or the ever-popular, “If you love Tony Bennet, you’ll like….” I know I have many a CD, DVD, and book in my home thanks to these systems of recommendation. And, while I haven’t loved everything I selected as a result of the system, I’d estimate that they were about 95% on target. I was reminded of a post on the State Library’s Futures Blog * about Browsing. Are these recommendations a new way to browse? I know one of my favorite CDs is the result of following all those “others who purchased..” links.

So what does this Long Tail have to do with libraries? I’ll jump to the presentation by Nancy Davenport from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). She mentioned our tie to ownership of materials. And, when we’re talking about the content in that long tail, it is expensive to own it. Libraries would be hard pressed to do so. She notes that libraries have been collecting a lot of the same content. And asked, Are we willing to give up ownership of our copy if we know theirs is in good shape and available?

I went on to think about our LiLI Unlimited Resource Sharing project. Are we prepared to deliver the items in that long tail? Being prepared means knowing where to find those unique materials. And we can find them if we get them online. Enter batchloading and some serious cataloging of specialized materials. More on that at a future date. But I think Idaho libraries are in a good position to be thinking about how to access Long Tail content.

And, hey, don’t you just love it when it all gets back to resource sharing? I know I do!

As the symposium was being filmed, I am hoping that OCLC will make a copy available through their website like they’ve done in the past. There was so much more to it, my thoughts here are just a glimpse. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to learning more about this Long Tail and how it is, or will, affecting the shape of library services in our future.

* Editor's Note: The Idaho Commission for Libraries, formerly the Idaho State Library, has integrated the content of the Futures Blog into the ICFL Blog.