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July 21, 2006
Second Life
I have read a lot about Second Life Library in the blogosphere over the last several months, but I hadn’t had the time to investigate. Yesterday, I downloaded Second Life and began the experience. I’ve never participated in the online gaming world, but I thought I knew kind of what to expect from observing my daughter’s playing Sims. It turns out that Second Life turns Sims on it’s head. Sims is a game – Second Life(at least the library) really isn’t.
Yes, it’s virtual and digital, but it’s also an educational experience. Consider this description from Beth’s Blog “What has been going on here is experimentation to understand the possibilities and potential of virtual worlds as an educational, instructional, therapeutic, marketing, and/or collaboration medium.” Clearly, SL has business implications as well. In one of her recent posts, she discusses the fundraising possibilities on SL and the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life that’s taking place this weekend. The Librarian in Black reports that the BBC has rented space on SL for music festivals (Second Life News)
Second Life has become big business, too -- it boasts over 200,000 subscribers. A recent Business Week article says, “All that has caught real-world investors' attention, too. On Mar. 28, Linden Lab raised a second, $11 million round of private financing, including new investor Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com Inc.” “In January inside Second Life alone, people spent nearly $5 million in some 4.2 million transactions buying or selling clothes, buildings, and the like.That can add up to serious change. Some 3,100 residents each earn a net profit on an average of $20,000 in annual revenues, and that's in real U.S. dollars.”
So, real life librarians are once again stretching out of their comfort zones to meet the public where they feel comfortable. Second Life is a new way to interact with the public, and with our colleagues to do what we do best – organize and promote the dissemination of information. This time, however, we're doing it in a virtual world. (Can I say that I occasionally feel a little like Jane Jetson?!) ALA Techsource explains it like this,"The process of creating the Second Life Library 2.0 in the Second Life virtual-reality environment has been very interesting to date. Basically, a group of avatars controlled by self-selecting volunteer librarians has been working to create and launch the new library. The Alliance Library System, headquartered in East Peoria, Illinois, is the real-world library organization providing the impetus and overall management of the project."
When you enter the Second Life Library, the Reference Desk is the first thing you see – this, in itself, is an improvement over most “real life” libraries. Even if a librarian is not at the desk, you can IM any one of about 5 librarians to ask for help. The library itself has 8 floors – each floor has various meeting rooms, screens for PowerPoint presentations, books written by SL authors, book discussions (three of them that I read about had the authors “present” at the discussions, computers, interactive art, sculpture, posters, government documents, historical, etc. For example, within the library, you can check out real e-books, read magazines and newspapers and peruse databases. Some vendors, OCLC and EBSCO, for example, are giving trial subscriptions to proprietary databases and the public otherwise wouldn’t have access to (except through their libraries, possibly). Techsoup (an online “techy” space for nonprofits) has a presence there. They recently did a “mixed reality event.” How’s that for a new phrase?! It was a presentation that took place in a publicized area of Second Life, but also in a hotel in California at the same time!
After a few hours, when my eyes started to cross and my brain started to hurt, I wandered out of the library to see what else I could find. I saw a group of people (avatars, really) standing around. As I got closer, I realized that I could eavesdrop on their conversation by reading along with the chat they were having. I introduced myself and it turns out that one of the women was also a librarian and one of the “big names,” Lori Bell, Alliance Library System, in Illinois, director of innovation or, as she’s known at SL, Lorelei Junot! They’re planning to launch a Second Life section for teens in the fall! You can read more about Second Life on their blog or visit their myspace page.
My husband says that the only people who need a Second Life are those who don’t have a “first life!” Point taken – anything that proves to be this much of an enormous time suck is suspicious. But, I have to say that there is a lot of fascinating stuff here. SL truly blurs the line between reality and virtual reality.
Posted by Michele at July 21, 2006 10:18 AM
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Comments
I think it takes time to learn it ... and don't worry about what others think!
I think your point here - is brilliant:
"So, real life librarians are once again stretching out of their comfort zones to meet the public where they feel comfortable. Second Life is a new way to interact with the public, and with our colleagues to do what we do best – organize and promote the dissemination of information."
Posted by: Beth at August 10, 2006 12:21 AM