diff --git a/config/vufind/config.ini b/config/vufind/config.ini
index c28b4c82e8bde14f4c140a789d503a789cf77b84..118d32ca467b449effb0bd03cefc012d6c3ffca2 100644
--- a/config/vufind/config.ini
+++ b/config/vufind/config.ini
@@ -853,4 +853,10 @@ treeSearchLimit = 100
 ;email_subject     = "VuFind Feedback"
 ; This is the information for where feedback emails are sent from.
 ;sender_email      = "noreply@vufind.org"
-;sender_name       = "VuFind Feedback"
\ No newline at end of file
+;sender_name       = "VuFind Feedback"
+
+; This section allows configuration of VuFind's social features
+[Social]
+; This controls the maximum length of a single tag; it should correspond with the
+; field size in the tags database table.
+max_tag_length = 64
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/module/VuFind/config/module.config.php b/module/VuFind/config/module.config.php
index 77ddc3d3db128ab19c6801bb1e4df6edc8af9a63..8fb8b2a3a6269b32fd0b1a2d62a817129410f11a 100644
--- a/module/VuFind/config/module.config.php
+++ b/module/VuFind/config/module.config.php
@@ -278,7 +278,10 @@ $config = array(
                 );
             },
             'VuFind\Tags' => function ($sm) {
-                return new \VuFind\Tags();
+                $config = $sm->get('VuFind\Config')->get('config');
+                $maxLength = isset($config->Social->max_tag_length)
+                    ? $config->Social->max_tag_length : 64;
+                return new \VuFind\Tags($maxLength);
             },
             'VuFind\Translator' => function ($sm) {
                 $factory = new \Zend\I18n\Translator\TranslatorServiceFactory();