Anderson- Producers, Markets and Tastemakers

As libraries and librarians create websites, blogs, and wikis for their patrons, they are certainly proving themselves to be new online producers. What once only computer programmers could do, now anyone, including librarians, can do. The interesting thing about an online library presence is that the librarians producing the websites are library experts (even if they are amateur website producers). By creating websites, librarians can offer their specialized knowledge not only to their local patrons, but also to countless other patrons from afar. And even though they may offer to help people through IM, email, or chat, the most remarkable thing about librarians producing web pages is that they are actively putting forth information, rather than passively waiting for questions to arise. By volunteering information before it is requested, they are saving patrons the time they’d wait for a response and themselves the time it would take to answer the same question from multiple patrons. Librarians who maintain an online presence are bringing libraries to a whole new efficiency level.

Librarians are also making excellent use of Web 2.0 tools in order to find out what their patrons are interested in. By paying attention to new and recent demands, they can work to provide patrons with the most current hits and niches of interest. Librarians may even be able to provide these services at more cost economical prices if they can make items in demand available online; for instance digital books (lower costs for the library and no shelf space/storage cost within the library). In addition to economic factors, digital books are also wonderful to carry because they can be categorized in multiple ways in order to be easily found.

Even if they haven’t explicitly been referred to as tastemakers, librarians have always served as valuable tastemakers within their own communities. Now, they can expand their services by offering recommendations and opinions to the masses. They can also help others become tastemakers by asking for comments on blog posts or by running an open wiki; both of which have the ability to grow a large fan base. By asking for and showing respect for patrons’ opinions, patrons can become more comfortable interacting with librarians and each other. Libraries can provide open forums for book discussions, recommendations, and opinions. Library websites can help lots of people become “microcelebrities” of their favorite genres. Then, not only are librarians serving as tastemakers, they’re enabling others to become tastemakers as well.