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Did You Know You Could Live a Second Life?
by Lori BellI thought one life was enough for me. I have a demanding and fun full-time job as Director of Innovation at Alliance Library System and two kids to taxi around. However, I now also have a "second life," which is sucking a lot of time and energy from my first life - both work and personal. Last April, I decided to check out the virtual world Second Life, and became fascinated with the world itself and the possibilities for libraries there.
Second Life is a 3D 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.) Second Life is exciting - addictive - and fun! This world gives you a chance to look however you want, whether that is a robot, a harem girl, or an animal. It gives you an opportunity to be whomever you want, whether that is you or someone else... and the occasion to explore interactive virtual places like museums or the Globe Theater, to hear concerts, and to take classes. Art museums, shopping malls, churches, movie theaters, different cultures, and libraries, just as in real life, are now part of the Second Life experience.
Some people choose for their avatar to look like their real-life self. Not me. I am 45, but my avatar looks 25. She doesn't have that middle-aged spread, and she is much better dressed than I am. She also has the long thick hair I have always wanted. (Better than that, I have both brunette and blonde avatars!)
Not a Gamer, But...
Although I love technology and the Internet, I have never been a gamer. For the past two years, my thirteen-year-old daughter has been playing the Sims, a CD-based game where you create a person or a family. You then have to take care of them, making sure they eat and use the restroom, get a job to support themselves, and take care of their children. This is fun, but I easily gave it up after the novelty wore off. (My ten-year-old son, of course, plays Star Wars, science fiction, and adventure type games on the Internet.)
Last spring, though, I attended the Computers in Libraries conference for the first time, and I just loved it! All the topics focused on technology, the Internet, new gadgets, new ways of doing things, and better ways of doing things, and it was hard to choose programs to attend. I attended a program on virtual realities and the things educators are doing in virtual realities. Earlier in the year, I had read about the Gaming in Libraries Symposium put on by Jenny Levine, the Shifted Librarian, and about a virtual world called Second Life and what people were doing in there. I had also read about a Minnesota university that had its journalism students do a simulation in the game of Never Winter Nights, where they had to interact with various community agencies to write a story about a city disaster.
In 2005, the Alliance Library System had submitted a grant on gaming on behalf of some of our libraries as a way to try and keep teens interested in the library. It was not funded, but the process encouraged me to start to read about gaming as a teaching tool and how it can help kids learn in a fun and more engaging way. I began wondering what we could do that might be effective.
The Roots of Second Life Library
In April 2006, Alliance Library System started the Second Life Library Project. We started with a rental space, then bought a plot of land and soon got an island (a very nice large space) donated to us. We knew education was moving rapidly into Second Life, but our main question was: would residents want a library in Second Life? The answer to that question has been a resounding and overwhelming "yes!" Another exciting factor which helped us grow so quickly is that we rapidly received offers of volunteer help for the library from all over the world, from librarians and others fascinated with what we were doing.
We have been growing and building for six months, and in October 2006 we held our grand opening ceremony. Soon, we will have three islands:
Info island 1, which has two main fairly traditional libraries divided by subject area, contains resources from the web and some books. Info Island I also hosts Mystery Manor, a gothic castle to promote mystery reading and book discussions, the Talis Science Fiction and Fantasy Gallery, which will do the same for science fiction, an art gallery, an open auditorium, and some neat places for searching the Internet, Amazon, and a few other in-world sources.
Info Island 2, which we obtained in August 2006, has a beautiful movie theater, a display building for promotion of digital collections and exhibits from the Library of Congress American Memory section, a Science Center, an Ancient Mayan exhibit, and space for two libraries with which we are working.
Healthinfo Island, which we obtained through a grant project in October 2006. This island will house the medical library and a consumer health library, and will offer training and services to medical support groups and professionals.
We also have a nineteenth-century library in an area where people dress in Victorian clothing, and buildings and manners are of the period.
Get a Second Life
What has been most amazing to me has been the opportunity to meet and work with people from all over the world, who I probably never would have met if not for this project. Our medical librarian, for instance, is from the Netherlands. I am also working with a group of librarians, led by Matt Gullett and Kelly Czarnecki, on a library for Teen Second Life.
I have also been surprised by the really aggressive entrepreneurs and developers that are in Second Life, because they believe that this is the future.
It is so important for libraries to have a presence in virtual spaces where people interact with information differently than I did growing up. This doesn't just apply to young people, either - one of the gentlemen actively involved in the science center is 82 years old. Libraries need to be in on providing services, working with the development of information distribution, and included in the social interaction.
There is so much we have to offer, and we are currently getting more demands for service than we are able to handle with our current growth rate. If you want action and adventure, but don't have an addictive personality - or, even if you do! - join us in Second Life. We need help, and we need a variety of expertise to provide the services, programs, and materials necessary. Second Life is fun, rewarding, and something great to put on your resume.
Lori Bell is Director of Innovation at the Alliance Library System in East Peoria, Illinois.