Tom Peters on ALA Techsource has a post on Libraries and the Long Tail:
I still wonder if more libraries should experiment with patron-driven selection—point our users to millions of available books, perhaps through a mash up of information cobbled from WorldCat, Amazon, publishers, book jobbers, etc., then a user could actually purchase (or libraries could even lease access to) an item only when a user expresses the interest or need to use the full text. While we're at it, let's let them decide what format they prefer: p-book, e-book, audiobook, etc.
Looking around for what this curious phrase means, I came across this from OCLC's NetLibrary dlgital collections program:
Patron-Driven Acquisition lets your patrons participate in the selection of new content. Through the patron-driven acquisition model, you gain access to all NetLibrary eBooks and eContent that match your predetermined profile. Once a title is viewed more than once, your library (or library group) automatically purchases it and adds it to your collection. You provide exposure to a very large title list and you know the content you've purchased is being used.
What would it mean to have a local library that could deliver (almost) everything? You'd submit a request, and the library would fill it either from its local collection, from some local interlibrary lending group, traditional ILL, buying the materials on the new or used market, or printing up some facsimile from a digital copy. The only thing you'd notice as a patron was how long it took to get things, and the library would choose how to deliver things not based on what form you filled out (ILL vs. purchase request) but what the efficient way to get the materials was.
Coverflow is a shiny piece of eye candy for Mac OS X iTunes listeners. It gives you a nice simple and attractive way to flip through your album covers one at a time and then play what you see. See a review on Cool Hunting.
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