ACRL-VWIG & ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries Program

August 21, 2016

 CVL Auditorium in Second Life 12:00pm SLT

Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal in Second Life), President of Rockcliffe University Consortium

The Rockcliffe Library Network Ten Years in Second Life 

 

Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal)

For the August ACRL-VWIG Program, Kevin Feenan, President of the Rockcliffe University Consortium provided an overview of the history and recent activities of the Rockcliffe Library Network within Second Life.  This organization has been active in Second Life for 10 years.  The library network started out in 2006 as a single site which served as a training and development resource center for Rockcliffe members in Second Life.  Since then it has progressively expanded its efforts to support educational/research projects by helping to make open-access publications and data available via the internet and mobile technologies to all researchers.  Along the way it has encouraged and promoted co-operation among the community of educators and librarians involved in immersive environments, especially Second Life.

The August program was one of the best attended with 25 librarians and educators from across the U.S.

The MediaWiki has had over 300,000 requests for access in the past year.  It cross references content in virtual worlds.

 Other activities include the development of the "MediaWiki".  This wiki focuses on resources related to immersive environments including articles, bibliographies, a curated collection of research tools, and other links to information related to knowledge emergence using virtual collaborative environments. 

The newly expanded Rockcliffe Library in Second Life

The Rockcliffe Library provides access to Resources such as open access e-journals and other online resources

 The Second Life Library on the campus of Rockcliffe University has recently expanded in size to cover half a region.  The library now includes 5 major subject areas; Business & Economics, Law, Social Sciences, Fine Arts, Science and the Humanities.  Multiple Reference areas with information kiosks provide researcher with access to e-journals and other open access, electronic resources.  

Reference areas include Science, the Arts, Education, Business and the Humanities.

Today the Rockcliffe Library Network, along with the Community Virtual Library,  has become one of the most vital and supportive outposts for those currently active in virtual worlds.  Future plans include an expansion to the Avacon Region of the Opensim Grid, where a library occupying 4 sims has been created.  The Rockcliffe Library Network has also submitted an application to ALA to become a registered ALA library.