ACRL-VWIG Program November 2, 2014

A Conversation to Suggest Improvements to Second Life
Supportive of Librarians & Educators

Notes from the November 2, 2014 ACRL-VWIG Program

"Everybody lives in virtual worlds...whether or not they have an avatar!" -Valibrarian Gregg


A large group of Second Life librarians and educators met to hold a conversation about our role in Second Life and how Linden Labs could support us in carrying it out.  This came after Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab's, asked for ideas and suggestions for improving Second Life now and, in the future as it continues to evolve into the new Linden Labs virtual world.

What Second Life Currently Offers Librarians & Educators

The conversation began with a review of some of the benefits to be had by being involved in Second Life.

-Second Life allows us to be involved & connected to the community of librarians and educators. We have developed a "purposeful community" where we can meet and talk about things we do in our jobs.  It provides a space where we can keep in touch and exchange ideas with one another.

-There is a genuine sense of presence in Second Life and none of the "disposable media" syndrome as happens with Twitter and other post/tweet technologies. The spaces and objects we create in Second Life are persistent and ongoing, and can be built upon and used by others long after they have been created.

-Second Life is a great place for networking and doing professional development. 

-Second Life gives us the ability to recreate and experience events, to actualize history, to experience events in science, architecture and literature.

-It provides a place where real life events can be modeled cost effectively and safely.  It is a space where one can provide training that would be expensive and difficult, if not impossible to do in real life, such as training rescue workers/nurses, disaster preparedness.

-While there are other virtual worlds, Second Life remains the "gold standard".  It continues to function as the place where librarians and educators active in virtual worlds meet to share information and ideas on how to utilize this medium for teaching and learning.  It has become an extension of our profession.

What Librarians & Educators Bring to Second Life

While Librarians & Educators make up such a small proportion of Second Life users and can't negotiate with Linden Labs from a position of strength, we do have skills and experiences that might help them in their goal to gain and retain new users.  This makes us a valuable asset.

-We are here.  We were some of the earliest adopters of virtual worlds.  Our longevity and trustworthy presence has contributed to making people come into Second Life and encouraged them to keep coming back.  Our presence helps with retention.  We are familiar with working in an ever changing environment where there is a flood of new information.  What's more, we bring specific skills and knowledge that would help us to mentor and train new users in navigating this world.

-Our involvement in education and non-profit projects in Second Life has generated much (if not ALL) of the positive press Linden Lab's has gotten.  Our involvement  helped bring in new users who were curious to see what all the fuss was about and it helps with retention.

-Many of us are major content creators, this adds value to Second Life and helps with Linden Lab's bottom line of making it a profitable business venture.

 

Some Librarian/Educator Success Stories

The Community Virtual Libraries 

Virtual Berlin in the 1920's

Virtual Pioneers

The Builders Brewery

Virtual Ability

Second Life has been a tremendously active forum for Librarians and educators. From hosting live events and speakers, to hosting meetings, conferences and exhibits, almost all of these projects have been successful without much, if any, support from Linden Labs.  One wonders what could have been achieved if Linden Lab's offered even the barest support such as publicizing events at the log-in splash screen or by making more of an effort to discover and list events in the Second Life schedule of events.

Obvious Suggestions for Improvement

The group echoed suggestions that nearly every other group has put forward to Linden Labs

1) Bring back the education discount.  (Ebbe implied this was going to happen at a previous public meeting, but it needs to be publicized more widely, and it needs to be done.)  What's more Linden Lab's should take into consideration the academic funding cycle and work with librarians and educators instead of acting as if they are just like every other user.

2) Make the Second Life viewer/interface simpler to use and easier for I.T. departments to support.

3) Reduce lag.

4) Improve group/voice chat.  (It mostly doesn't work for nearly everyone.)

5) Allow more avatars on a sim at one time.

6) Allow more prims to be used in each sim.

7) Provide better, new-user orientation experience.

8) Provide an easier way to document/track conversations over time.

9) Provide a good way for residents to communicate in-world when they are not logged-in.

10) Increase or do away with the caps on instant messages when an avatar is not logged in to Second Life.

11) Improve the information sharing and management tools.

12) Provide a better, more interactive search tool for residents within Second Life.

13) Provide a way for residents to track all their objects grid-wide.

14) Consider providing a "basic simplified viewer" for new users with options to incrementally move to hardier versions as they become familiar with more basic features.

15) Clarify creators rights in the Terms of Service. (Again, this was something Ebbe has said would happen at other public forums.  It hasn't happened yet.)  Intellectual property rights are a make-it  or break-it consideration for academic institutions/educators who are considering teaching or doing research in Second Life.  Clarification of creators rights would reduce anxiety about this and, in the long run, increase participation by teaching faculty and researchers.  

16) Make it possible to transport all previously created content to future incarnations of Second Life.

17) Advertise the educational events and aspects of Second Life, not just the social aspects.

18) Hire a librarian to help with information literacy issues and to help improve search features and the way information can be organized, managed and relayed from within Second Life.

19) Recognize that there are lots of people who use Second Life for teaching and learning and help create an environment that supports that.

 

ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group Program, October 19, 2014

Libraries in Second Life: Linking Collections, Clients, and Communities in a Virtual World

Presenters:  
John T. Gannt, Head of Technical Services, Auburn Montgomery Library, Auburn University-(M. Gaston Villers in SL).
 
J. Randal Woodland, professor, Department of Language, Culture & Communication, University of Michigan-Dearborn (Rudolfo Woodget in SL). 
 

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For the October program, the group met to discuss the findings of John and Randal's survey of libraries as published in  

"Libraries in Second Life: Linking Collections, Clients and Communities in a Virtual World"  Journal of Web Librarianship, 7:2, 123-141, 

 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2013.780883

This article attempted to survey the landscape of Second Life in order to reveal the kinds of libraries found there.  One of the first difficulties the authors encountered was that there is no comprehensive listing of everything called a "library" in Second Life.  Using a strategy that combined the search feature of the Second Life client, with a comprehensive literature review and with libraries they learned of anecdotally, they managed to create a list of libraries operating in Second Life.  This environmental scan led them to a set of questions which allowed them to get at the important features of each library.

1.  Is the library connected to First Life?

2.  Who are the librarians?  Who are the clients?

3.  What information is provided?  What does it look like?

4.  Where is the building?  Why this building?

5.  How is it immersive?

Their goal in the end was to answer the question, "What might a virtual library be?"

  

 Their survey allowed them to classify Second Life libraries.  What they found were that most of them fit into one of 7 different categories:

1.  The Placemaker

These types of libraries often represent and replicate actual libraries which exist in the real world, in Second Life, these generally have no collection, provide no services nor are they staffed by librarians. Primarily their function is to help establish a larger place/context within Second Life. They help create the "identity" of a region within Second Life.  They serve as images of what virtual libraries might be.

 2. The Public Library Portal  

Public library portals often function  as a base of operations for librarians to explore Second Life.  While often housed in small, unimpressive buildings, many offer innovative library services.  These libraries provide a link for librarians between First Life and Second Life.  They serve to nurture the growth of creative library work in virtual worlds.

3. The Campus Library

These types of libraries share some features of the first two categories.  They can serve as both an anchor for a university's Second Life campus and, also serve as an information portal, providing real information about a particular college.  These types of libraries often include exhibits and displays offering information about the university and access to the library's web sites.  Library spaces are often a major component of Second Life University spaces.  They reflect the real life importance of libraries to an institutions academic mission and provide possibilities for librarians to engage in virtual library work.

4. The Community Library/ 5. Role Play Resource Center Library

These types of library are often place-based.  They serve a real community that exists within Second Life and can be vitally involved in the growth of that community.  Second Life communities are often built up around a particular subject.  These libraries exist to support the communities of practice which can form around a regular series of events, discussion groups or even around role-play. These types of libraries often house collections of books, presented as virtual objects, which are authored by members of the Second Life community and which provide information about that community's organizing subject, be it meditation, spirituality, role-play or other interests.  Many role-play communities have libraries that offer resources which help to structure and enhance the role-play experience. These "books" can be made available to users in a number of ways: as note cards within Second Life, as links to internet resources, or as virtual objects that can be used/read within Second Life.

6. The Utopian Library

These libraries take advantage of the freedom of virtual space to reimagine library spaces not constructed of brick and mortar.  These libraries are often fanciful pavilions, reminiscent of a World's Fair exhibition or theme park. These libraries offer links to texts and to internet resources and use

innovative strategies to identify and present particular collections of materials.  Although these libraries rarely look like a real life library, they often offer access to collections and resources about related Second Life spaces and activities.  Information in these libraries is usually presented in a visually compelling way designed to spark user interest and invite further research on whatever subject they are organized around.  

7. The Library of Extraordinary Things

These are libraries that could only exist in a virtual world.  They are designed to help Second Life residents live, work and play in Second Life.  Often they are not labeled as libraries, nor do they operate using principals of librarianship.  What they do instead is collect resources used to personalize one's Second Life experience.  These are resources that can be used to create virtual items which  can be shared or sold to others. They also include resources that permit users to change their physical appearance within Second Life.  One such library exists within each Second Life user's inventory.  This immense collection of carefully organized/arranged resources, includes things such as building materials, objects and even whole avatars.  These resources allow users to explore capabilities within Second Life.  These types of libraries demonstrate that libraries in virtual spaces can be informational spaces that allows users to understand how virtual worlds work and how they can actively alter their relationship to that world.  These libraries, as the authors suggest, offer "access to a certain kind of virtual literacy."

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Virtual worlds are not going away.  Examining the types and functions of libraries in Second Life is valuable because they make us focus on issues and questions about the future of libraries and librarians. This type of examination helps us consider how libraries and librarians will provide information and services to those populating virtual worlds.

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My thanks to Beth Ghostraven who provided all the images used in this entry.

Education & Living History in Virtual Worlds Pt. 2

The ACRL-VWIG Summer Program Series Part 2

The ACRL-VWIG program for August continued its' exploration of Second Life as a means for exploring and engaging students via an examination of cultural productions and sites within Second Life.  For August, ACRL-VWIG members were given the opportunity to explore the Rocca Sorrentina build at Westphalia/85/160/2801.  Rocca Sorrentina is a representation of a fictitious but historically-plausible 18th century island community located in the Bay of Naples, off the coast of Italy.  This Second Life sim is maintained as part of an education experiment by Brown University and their Laboratory for Virtual Arts & Humanities.  

Rocca Sorrentina at the Westphalia sim

Rocca Sorrentina is an educational space designed to help participants gain a better understanding of the Enlightenment and the era of the "Grand Tour of Europe" by giving them the opportunity to actually be immersed in a historical recreation of the time period.

Rocca Sorrentina & the Villa Vesuviana

The buildings on the island  reflect the complex society and the diverse architecture of southern Italy in the 1780's. There are the small shops of 18th century tradesmen, a dock area displaying merchant ships of the period, ancient ruins, fortifications, a grand villa, an underground cavern and lake, and a number of private residences.

In costume, at the orientation, waiting for the ship to Rocca Sorrentina

The group of about 15 librarians from the ACRL-VWIG,  met first at the Orientation Center.  Period costume was suggested and everyone pulled their finest frock coats and paniers out of their inventories.  Here, our hosts Aldo Stern and Sere Timeless provided a brief history of the space and its' use as an educational space for engaging in collaborative, self-directed learning.  In this environment, the residents and students can explore topics, and in the process learn not just about history and art but also about how people acquire, share and assimilate information in a virtual space.





Lady Sere Timeless, Professore Aldo Stern and JJ Drinkwater in their Baroque best

 
Our hosts explained that the main purpose of Rocca Sorrentina was to explore how educators can use the unique features of a virtual world to create an immersive learning environment.  The main purpose of Rocca Sorrentina is to demonstrate how a built space in Second Life can be used to do "collaborative self-directed learning". The thought is that instructors can construct a virtual space in Second Life around activities that allow students to actually experience an historical event or setting.   Rocca Sorrentina is a historical recreation and to that end everything about it has been designed to be as historically accurate to the time period and location as possible.  Activities are designed to help residents and visitors understand and learn about the culture, world and  ideas of the late 18th century.

Our guide provided a setup scenario we visitors were to use in our approach to the experience which was that it was 1784, and, we were travelers on the Grand Tour to Italy about to disembark at the small island of Rocca Sorrentina.  We were instructed to look at the world we were about to enter from an 18th century perspective.

After a brief and mercifully calm voyage across the Bay of Naples aboard a sailing ship, we arrived at Rocca Sorrentina's bustling port and disembarked.  The Harbor area features many shops and businesses.  There are also a number of private residences.  We set out first to visit the impressive Villa Vesuviana.

Disembarking at the Rocca Sorrentina dock

The Villa Vesuviana  - a grand residence inspired by Andrea Palladio's famous Villa Capra La Rotunda outside Vicenza in Northern Itlay.  This structure and its surrounding gardens, functions as the administrative center and is the main public building for events which take place on Rocca Sorrentina.  



The Villa Vesuvianna



Highlights of the house tour included the Music room with its murals by Giorgio Vasari.

Inside the Music Room

The  main hall of the palazzo was richly decorated with paintings and other art works and featured a soaring domed cupola.



The Rotunda

Waiting in the wings

The tour continued with a perambulation out onto the great lawn with its' sheep and Egyptian obelisk.

The Egyptian obelisk on the great lawn

The final stop was at  the Accademia di Sorrrentina, home of the island's learned society with its' beautiful lecture hall and a working, stocked library.

Hesitation at the door to the Accademia

Upstairs in the Accademia is the famous Cabinet of Curiosities.  This gallery hosts a variety of historical materials representing the broad range of interests being studied by enlightenment-era scholars.  It reflects the rich history of the island.  Items exhibited highlight all the historical periods and occupants of Rocca Sorrentina,  from the very earliest settlers, the Greeks and Romans,  to the Spanish Bourbons of the mid 1700's.

The Cabinet of Curiosities

At this point,  I had to depart the tour as my ship was sailing on to Naples so that I could explore the ruins of Pompeii.  I understand the rest of the party finished up at a coffee house near the harbor discussing the wonders they'd been exploring.

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I found this experience both enjoyable and educational.  The idea of being able to immerse students into a time period or historical scenario and so evoke a "lived experience" provides educators with a very compelling tool for teaching.    The power of immersion to provide students with a "lived experience" combined with teachable moments reinforced through role play are just 2 examples of the many remarkable benefits that virtual worlds can offer educators.  These elements are hallmarks  hallmark of virtual worlds.  They offers educators a unique and powerful tool for providing students with a unique and powerful learning experience.    As Valibrarian Gregg put it, "This, I believe, is like bringing students "inside the book".