Enjoying Your First Life? Why Not Add a Second? Developing Library Services in Second Life - Lori Bell, Tom Peters, and Kitty Pope

It’s exciting…addictive…and fun. A chance to look however you want, whether that is a robot, a harem girl, or an animal. An opportunity to be whomever you want whether that is you or someone else…and the occasion to explore interactive virtual places like museums, the Globe Theater, hear concerts, and take classes. Museums full of art, shopping malls, churches, movie theaters, and different cultures, and now libraries, as in real life, are part of the Second Life experience. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world for adults 18 and over where one can create an avatar or persona and interact with others in a variety of different settings. There is also a Teen Second Life for teens ages 14-18 where no adults are allowed.

Alliance Library System started the Second Life Library project in April 2006 in response to a shift in people of all ages from media consumers to media creators. They are all spending more time on the Internet and they want to create and contribute, not just consume. Alliance Library System (ALS), located in East Peoria, Illinois, is one of nine regional library systems in Illinois. ALS has 259 member libraries of all types (academic, special, school and public). We provide a variety of services for our members including continuing education, consulting, grant writing, and new technology initiatives.

Although gaming is becoming more popular in libraries to attract teens, we only have a couple of libraries offering gaming activities. More libraries are interested, but most people do not understand the relationship gaming has to literacy, learning, digital storytelling, and content creation. Obtaining grant-funded support for gaming in libraries has been difficult, perhaps in part because funding agencies cannot discern the connection between gaming and other aspects of literacy, content creation, and social interaction. Since then, we have been waiting and looking for the right opportunity to get our libraries involved in gaming and virtual worlds – to make library collections and services available where the users already are.

More Questions Than Answers

We entered the Second Life environment with more questions than answers, and three months later we have even more questions. We have found that Second Life residents are interested in libraries – materials, services, and community. Through this year-long project we are building library services and finding out what virtual world residents want in a twenty-first century library.

Since we put out a call for participation, over 150 librarians from all over the world have joined our Google group, which is used for project communication and discussion. Approximately three dozen volunteers are actively involved in developing library services and programs. Our need for virtual space has blossomed. We have gone from a rental space to a small plot of land to an island from an anonymous donor. A builder is working on our main library building, which should be ready in July. Second Life Library is now part of Info Island, which includes partners such as TechSoup.org, World Bridges, and the ICT (Information Communications and Technology) Library, which provides information on education tools in Second Life for educators.

Books or No Books?

Books or no books? That is the question. In a twenty-first century virtual library, do we want books? What format do books and reading take in Second Life? Do people want to read while in Second Life or should the library function more as a gathering place to promote reading and use of real life libraries?

There are books in Second Life in various formats. One format is a series of notecards; another is almost an art form - it looks like a book, can be a variety of sizes and is worn, but has to be read in a different view than the normal screen. This does not make for easy reading in Second Life. There are many writers and artists in Second Life who want to create and share their work with others. The Second Life Library has had several generous and beautiful art donations and real life authors willing to talk about their work and do a program at the library.

We are “staffing” the island two hours per day in the evening when it is busiest to meet people, offer information services, and give them tours of Info island. When we get our new building, we will staff it and have email reference available when a librarian is not online. The group is working with several library vendors to obtain trials of electronic information resources to investigate what will be used in the Second Life environment.

The librarians involved in the project are almost all new to Second Life. Most are volunteering their time and expertise, as it is difficult to explain to a supervisor the value of using work hours for a library in a virtual reality. The learning curve is somewhat steep because Second Life is like a different culture and things are done differently than in real life.

A Variety Of Services

Here are some of the services and programs you will find at Info Island if you visit us in Second Life:

Medical Library

“Namro Orman” (SL name), a medical librarian from the Netherlands, developed a medical library, which has links to credible health resources on the Internet, an email link to send reference questions to Namro when he is offline, and ongoing displays and presentations. During June and July, the medical library has a free trial from Ebsco Consumer Health Database for Second Life residents. “Maxito Ricardo” is working with Namro to provide training sessions on how to use this resource, how to search the Internet for health information, and how to evaluate that information.

SciFi In the Sky Skypod

In honor of hosting science fiction authors Steve Miller and Sharon Lee for a talk on the island, we purchased a skypod, a futuristic building in the sky, and furnished it with contemporary furnishings. We created posters of book jackets of scifi titles written by Steve and Sharon. Thirty people attended the program. A science fiction group has offered to put up posters to promote additional science fiction authors, and Bud Starhawk, a popular real life science fiction author, has agreed to give a program on July 2.

History Gallery Garden

Visitors can stroll through the History Gallery Garden where we are featuring two women from nineteenth century Illinois. Life-size posters of archival photographs of the women are set up in a garden setting with a clickable link to listen to an audio description about the photograph. The women featured for June and July are Emma Abbott, an opera singer from Peoria, and Dr. Melinda Germann, a physician from Quincy. A notecard is available with more information on both women and a link to a library digital collections website with additional photographs. Several real life libraries have expressed interest in setting up similar exhibits to promote and share their digital historical collections.

Murder at Mystery Manor

A large castle with interior Gothic decorations and furnishings will feature programs and information on mystery and horror books and authors. “Brackish Ludwig” is working on a secret tunnel to take readers under the castle to explore.

Caledon – A Nineteenth Century Library

Caledon is a beautiful and popular nineteenth century area in Second Life. Residents dress in Victorian attire and shops and homes are required to be nineteenth century style. Caledon residents wanted a branch library, so “CoyoteAngel Dimsum” donated land and is building a period style library, which will be a branch of the Info Island main library. Under “Cypress Barrett” and “Corrigan Keys,” there is a group of librarians working on programs, services, and staffing a virtual Victorian library with twenty-first century technology. Caledon is a close-knit virtual community, and residents will be actively involved in the planning and implementation of library services in that community.

More To Come
We are working on providing reference services and resources, which will be promoted more aggressively once we are in our new building. The collections group is working on the formats and types of materials – books, art, and artifacts – especially by Second Life residents, that we will want to offer at the new library. We have a weekly column in the “Metaverse Messenger,” a newspaper serving Second Life, and we have started a citizen advisory group, which is working on a library business plan to guide us through the next year. Challenges also include learning about the audio and video formats which work in Second Life and how the library might utilize these.

Where Users Are

We still have more questions than answers and the further we go, the more questions we ask. The fact remains – libraries need to provide services and build a presence where the users are. In real life, libraries are an important and valuable part of their communities. We think this is also true of the virtual world.