Anderson Reading

• How do libraries/Librarians fill roles as New Producers, New Markets, and New Tastemakers?

New Producers
The Long Tail phenomenon has transformed various methods of production by providing direct avenues for amateurs to tap into the world of professionals. This is evident in the music industry with album releases, written publications, as well as scientific arenas such as astronomy with the SETI at home project. With the advent of the personal computer and with the added features of the web 2.0 environment, we are now attempting to harness the wisdom of the crowd and utilize this collective knowledge to further length the tail.

Just as the science world is using the general audience to identify craters on Mars, librarians could also utilize public assistance. The one of the most powerful tools offered by web 2.0 is that of social tagging. The ability to add descriptive information to documentary units could be very beneficial to librarians world of indexing. Trends show that individuals are motivated to contribute for reasons other than monetary gain. Librarians should take full advantage of these trends perhaps by supplementing current classifications systems with collaborative elements such as social tagging. Personally I think people also just like feeling like the feeling of being part of a bigger whole.

New Markets
The days of agonizing over shelf space are long gone. The power in the Long Tail is best harnessed when utilizing on demand inventory. Many book services are going purely digital by reproducing manuscripts once an order is placed rather than having an inventory stock. However, success is not achieved by simply going digital, viral marketing is also essential in order to help guide potential consumers to find your products through all of the noise.

Librarians could benefits from the on demand environments by digitizing their inventory and services. Scanned documentary units as well as virtual reference services are just two ways to optimize their marketability by reaching out to a much broader audience.

New Tastemakers
I just loved Anderson's statement that "the ants now have megaphones" as I thought it perfectly described the power shift which is transferring the power from the company or the brand to the favor of the consumer. It is these ants that are helping to guide potential consumers through the noise of the Long Tail to a particular area of interest. Consumers have turned to the web 2.0 service of the blog to comment on their experience or knowledge of a product. Just as viral marketing can benefit the success of sales, if the rating of the tastemakers is favorable, it will also help to boost the sales. However, on the flipside, the tastemakers could also negatively effect sales with a bad review.

Libraries could look to creating a blog or social networking profile to reach out to patrons and extend their client base. For example, a basic book review blog could help promote those lesser known novels or "niches" to a broader audience. Allowing the blog readers to also add their commentary may also be beneficial to the marketing of the product as well as provide them with an interactive experience.