Librarians and the long tail

The most obvious place for librarians and libraries in the long tail would seem to be as New Tastemakers. Tastemaking, after all, has always been a big part of the job. However, librarians have typically done this from a position of authority relative to the patron (if an advanced degree isn't a marker of authority, I don't know what is). New Tastemakers don't generally have the benefit of a degree: they tend to be hobbyists and enthusiasts who has studied a subject in depth for the love of it. For librarians to succeed in this new world, they will have to lean less on the assumption that they know more by virtue of their training and education. Instead, they will have to play up their own specialized interests (but let's face it, librarians tend to be people with interesting hobbies!).

Being New Producers seems straightforward enough. With the technological tools now available, it's easy for libraries and librarians to put up blogs, wikis, podcasts, Flickr streams...the whole nine yards. With the push toward open source software, libraries can even roll their own OPACs and other computer infrastructure without being limited to expensive proprietary software.

In terms of New Markets, I think one has to think of library systems as a large group, not as individual institutions. Inter-library loan is already a way in which this happens. What may ultimately happen is that libraries may build their collections as part of a whole that is held by a consortium. This could be a good way to build a more complete collection in a way that uses limited funds more effectively. Of course, some books will need more copies because they're more popular, but this might be an effective way of stocking a larger number of books with a smaller demand.

SCILS experience

It's hard to condense my SCILS experience to a single blog post, since it has changed pretty much every aspect of my life. I'm a part-time on-campus student who is doing the program in three years, not the standard two years for a full-time student. Last year, all of my classes were night classes, which were relatively easy to fit in with a full-time job. This semester, I have one afternoon class and this online one, so I have to make up the hours I miss because of school. I'm lucky that I have a workplace where this is possible.

However, the combination of working full-time and taking two classes with plenty of homework means that I have very little time to spare for other things. Housework is at the bottom of the pile (literally), and I see very little of my friends (apart from the odd e-mail exchange). The constant round of trying to keep life organized enough to deal with all the things that need to be done can get very wearing.

One of my regrets about the program is that I can't take advantage of lots of things that are offered, such as special lectures. As a career-changer, I have to keep the job I have now in order to pay the bills, so I can't always be running off to lectures (no matter how intriguing) during work hours. I do have a paper from last semester's Human Information Behavior class that has the potential for publication, but finding the time even for revising that has been impossible so far (even though I know such a publication would be a huge plus for my resume). I spend a lot of my time being pulled in many directions at once, and that's also wearing.

Then there's the travel. I do a lot more driving than I used to, and the roads I travel have their share of, um, interesting drivers (never mind potholes). I have taken the train on occasion, but that requires a lot of logistical planning (I have to take the NJ Transit bus to and from the train station since parking is essentially unavailable at Princeton Junction). I would take public transit more often if it fit my temporal and geographical circumstances better. For the record, my one-way drive is about 45 minutes, so having an online class this semester is a terrific break.

The good stuff: I've done really well in my classes and enjoy the subjects I've studied (even Human Information Behavior and cataloging!). I've been out of school for a long time, and since I've returned to grad school, I've reminded myself that I really enjoy intellectual studies and challenge. The structure of a class is also kind of reassuring for someone whose life has been nothing short of chaotic for way too long. It's also great to meet others who are equally excited about the field. I think it's a very interesting time to be in the library field because of the opportunities offered by new technologies. These trends are everywhere, but I think LIS folks get to deal with them more consciously than a lot of other people.

I've also enjoyed seeing everybody else's images of their SCILS experience!

Google Analytics stats

When I first started blogging back in 2004 (when you had to walk uphill both ways to school in the snow^), I resisted installing site stats because I just knew I would get totally obsessed with them and waste too much time. So now here I am doing it for credit (and after I've succumbed to their lure in other departments of my online life). C'est la vie.

Almost three-quarters of visitors to this blog used Firefox (74.72%), while 25.58% used Internet Explorer. The connection speed results seemed surprising at first glance: a whopping 44.19% for dialup (woo hoo!), then 23.26% for T1 connections, then 18.60% for cable, 11.63% for DSL, and 2.33% (one whole visit) for "unknown" (though given how much else Google Analytics can determine, one wonders how something could possibly be unknown).

The initally surprising results for dialup, however, are quickly explained by the fact that I haven't gotten my new DSL to work yet (mostly because of lack of time to devote to the problem), so I am still on dialup except when using the network at Rutgers while on campus. The T1 stat suggests someone is looking at this blog at work (though that isn't me, I figure that Flickring on my lunch hour is way too much as it is).

For comparison (well, ok, just because I wanted to, but it offers a comparison), I also installed Google Analytics on my birding blog, and the top speed there is cable (36.36%), with DSL second (27.97%). IE is the big fave of folks looking at the bird blog (53.15%), with Firefox (28.67%), and Safari (18.18%) runners-up. Most of that blog's vistors find it through search engines, while most visitors to this blog use the russl wiki.

pbwiki vs. wikispaces

For my wiki comparison, I decided to try wikispaces. Its setup was very quick and painless, faster than pbwiki. Once in, I noticed Google AdSense ads on the side (though to be fair, pbwiki also has ads; I just haven't seen them since my pbwiki experiences have been with wikis for education (without ads).

Wikispaces' editing interface seemed more limited than pbwiki's, although it might just be because I'm used to the pbwiki interface. I tried embedding a VoiceThread, but wasn't able to do it; that might be because I couldn't decide whether it qualified as video, audio or other media.

One different feature in wikispaces is the appearance of a field for notes on a revision when one is in editing mode. These notes can be added to the history log and are a nice feature.

Once again, I feel as though I need to dig deeper into wikispaces in order to ferret out more distinctions between it and pbwiki. The more you play with these services, the more quirks you find, and the more you refine your understanding of them.

Shared docs and students

In some ways, shared documents such as Google Docs can be a boon to students, whether online or offline. Although students who don't meet face to face in the classroom at all need to rely on such collaborative services, students who need to work on projects in an on-campus class can also find these services useful. Just because on-campus students attend class in a physical classroom doesn't mean that they are in class all the time! There's also likely to be a mix of students who live on campus and students who commute (and therefore spend much less time on campus).

However, everybody has certain preferences for communications media and working with others. Collaboration via shared docs may be easy or second nature to some, while others will have a hard time getting used to it. Working asynchronously on a document after a clear workflow is agreed upon may favor those who like to work independently. Working on a document all at once may favor those who prefer conversation and hashing things out together (and its online version, IM).

In sum, I think that whether a collaborative document is an asset to a group of students (whether online or on-campus) depends as much on the individual personalities and working styles as anything else.

del.icio.us introductions?

Using del.icio.us bookmarks as a way for people to introduce themselves is an interesting idea. Pros are:

• it's simple
• it's fun and not-too-serious
• it's a painless way of introducing Web 2.0 and tagging
• people don't have to agonize over what to say in response to the question, "Tell me a little about yourself."
• the lighter side of people's personalities comes out (hobbies) and many people prefer talking about those things than work or career

The one negative I've come up with is that human beings love stories, and there's no narrative in a set of del.icio.us bookmarks (unless the viewer constructs a hypothetical one) like there is in a statement about "who I am." Whether a story is more memorable than a quirky bookmark choice, however, is probably debatable.

So, I think my decision would be to give it a try in appropriate situations.

Libraries and the long tail

I think the idea of the long tail has a lot to offer libraries, but I also think not all libraries will benefit from it. The libraries that will get the most out of it are likely to be special and academic libraries. These libraries need deep collections in topics that may be esoteric; even topics that are relatively mainstream get more obscure the deeper you dig. These libraries also serve patrons who need more than just the usual information, and are frequently extremely knowledgeable (and demanding) about specialized subjects and sources.

Archives also have the potential to benefit from the long tail, though many archival materials are so unique that they are beyond the scope of the long tail. If an archive has collections that provide context to the archive’s unique materials, however, the long tail may come into play. Since archival reference sources may be even more specialized than those found in special libraries, this is an obvious long tail situation.

A standard public library may not need the long tail, however. A public library needs to have a wide range of resources to cover a wide variety of needs, but may not have the need (or resources) to specialize. In a way, inter-library loan may be the best way for public libraries to use the long tail: if a patron needs more specialized information than what the public library can offer from its own holdings, inter-library loan is the next obvious path to take.