Libraries and Second Life

I must admit that Second Life (SL) is becoming more appealing. Yes, I still have lag, my client crashes at inopportune times, but I have enjoyed interacting on this platform in my early experiences and on tours. It is very immersive, it somehow blurs the edged between reality and the virtual.

I am a little disappointed in the libraries that I experiences. I am not sure what I expected.I have experienced two different type of libraries in SL libraries such as Standford University which is a physical library as well as virtual and others such as Community Virtual Library (CVL) which is only virtual. Libraries exist in SL as many aspects of it try to imitate real life (well...not the parts where avatars are half beast, half person). And once people become more familiar with SL, they look for information on how they can improve their experiences and as in real life, people head for the library within Second Life for that information (Baity et al, 2009 p.5). 

Standford library is nicely set up with some lovely places to wander. I thought that I would interact more within SL but most of the interaction happened on websites outside of SL. I could leave a message, or be taken to a website to get questions answered. Visual boards of different branches linked me to their websites or catalogue. I loved reading about the rare books in the Book Garden.

My avatar perusing the Book Garden at Standford University Library

The CVL was similar. I could visit when there was a librarian present but it seemed to follow a US timetable. It seemed to have little popups that helped me to navigate round, had displays where I could get information on SL features such as scripting. It seemed to provide information about interacting in SL as well as linking to traditional resources via web pages.  

Using the reference services at CVL

From my experiences libraries in SL are: 

• Offering traditional library services linking to back to library websites
• Setting up virtual services with avatar librarians
• Showcasing their collections
• Providing spaces for conferences/lectures/learning opportunities. I see this as one of the best features of libraries in SL. People from different geographic locations can get together for discussions. It would be a great learning tool for distance education students to gather socially and also be able to have virtual lectures together and give presentations.

Some concluding thoughts

• I wonder if SL has had its peak. Long term concurrancy statistics (maximum number of users on at any one time) show that that SL peaked in early 2009.  
• SL requires a lot of staff time in experimenting and becoming comfortable in Second Life, in becoming competent and knowledgeable enough to help other users in their SL Journey and I wonder if that time is worthwhile.
• What percentage of current library patrons would choose to access the library via SL? I would suggest very few from a public library, so is it really adding value to services.
• SL is very resource heavy in that it requires newer computers with good graphics cards and large bandwidth to function well. This is a barrier for some in using services on SL, adding to digital divide issues
• It still seems quite novel to me, and I wonder how many people use SL libraries from traditional information searching apart from information about engaging in SL.
  

  
  

References:

Baity, C., Chappell, P., Rachlin, D., Vinson, C. & Zamarripa, M. (2009) When Real and Virtual Worlds Collide: A Second Life Library. Retrieved from

http://www.desktop-computing.com/capstone/Documents/WhenVirtualWorldsCollideFinal.pdf

Art tours and shopping........in Second Life

My favourite artwork during the tour - animated falling autumn leaves

Tonight I had a great time in Second Life.  I have been having issues with my computer with lag and voice chat which made it difficult to go an any tours the course was offering.  However I borrowed a laptop that ran a windows operating system and was able to interact really well, and get my voice chat to work.  I run a Linux OS and it don't think that Second Life has really developed a good SL viewer for Linux.  Anyway.......It was great that I could talk and hear the tour and get some insights into Second Life, and chat with people from my course.  Being distance Ed this doesn't happen much, so interactions on Second Life for distance education students would be a great way to build up a class community.

Gallery of people and their avatars at Thothica

Cas took us on a tour of some of the art installations and galleries in Second Life.  One of the most fascinating was a gallery with images of people and their avatars.  The way that people customize their avatars to look like them, down to the clothes they wear.  It is interesting to consider people's relationship to their avatar.  I haven't done much customizing of my avatar, but I am certainly not going to have one that mimics my over weight, middle aged body!  There are not many places I can be thin, young and energetic in real life, so I need to take advantage of Second Life.
Avatars are an important part of Second Life and as in real life I have found that they effect the way I think of people in Second life.  Cas I found extroverted which mainly had to do with the gestures her avatar made, confident and open.  However Mishellanous, another avatar who is new to Second life spent most of the time looking straight ahead with her hands by her sides so I assumed that she is quite and shy.  This is probably no the case but being new she hasn't added gestures to her avatar.  I probabaly seemed the same to her.

Right: Buying souvenir t-shirts at Artropolis
Left: End of tour in our Artropolis t-shirts


Cas gave me some landmarks to go shopping, so I have spent the past few hours shopping in Second life and then finding a changing room and trying on my outfits and doing some mixing and matching.  There are some great free shopping areas to take advantage of, even if a lot of outfits are a little skimpy.  I collate some outfit shots into the image below.

First Experiences in Second Life

Me on a camel in the desert of Giza

I am not much of a gamer. I really don't see the point of them. I don't do well at games, I think it is my inability to automatically determine my left from my right and I lack mouse co-ordination. So I approached my first experiences with Second Life with trepidation.
My first experience in second life had be bumping into objects with my hands out like a zombie wearing a steam punk outfit. I tried to chat to some people around me but they had as much idea as to what to do as I did. I had considerable lag on my actions, so I always seemed to move much further than I wanted to and found the experience disappointing and frustrating..
I have always wanted to visit Egypt, so for my second visit I searched for Egyptian themed places. Amongst the places I visit was a Giza pyramid where I learned to sit on a camel and took some photos.
My third experience in second life was a introduction with Cas Geordie. This turned out to be frustrating as I had trouble with sound. In the end people could hear me, but I couldn't hear them. I was able to get some chat summaries from one of the other students about what was happening but felt left out.
My best experience was on a virtual tour with another student who taught me how to interact more with objects and where, among other places, we visited Info Island and took a cushion tour.
Some of the functions I have learned on SL include sitting, running, walking, flying, changing camera angles, changing my outfit in a dressing room, dancing, interacting with objects.
I will continue to experiment with Second Life and try to look for experiences in using a library in this virtual world.