I began my "second life" in early May and have been a member for almost three months now. I began Second Life in order to explore possibilities and opportunities to enhance my librarianship. I still consider myself a "newbie". Second Life is a virtual world conceived by artist Philip Rosedale at Linden Labs in San Francisco, and in June, 2003 it went live. Second Life was originally called Linden World. It is a virtual environment where residents can create the world in which they would like to live and be. It is not a game. One can join for free or pay for different levels of membership. There are over 8 million residents with 30 to 40 thousand residents on line at any one time. One can buy Linden dollars to purchase or rent land, islands, houses, apparel, hairstyles, art and just about anything one can imagine being sold with real life credit card accounts. One US dollar is worth about 300 Linden Dollars and the exchange rate fluctuates. One can travel around second life by teleporting to different simulations. Second Life is for adults with a separate Second Life for teens. You can get to Second Life by logging on via the internet.
There are introduction instructions on Help Island that you can work through and get note cards with instructions when you first join Second Life. In the beginning, I was obsessed with my avatar’s appearance and spent a lot of time in the "Appearance Castle" trying on hair styles and facial features and shoes and skin texture. I would be whirling around changing appearances in front of other avatars (avatars that I didn’t know) who would begin chat conversations with me. Weird! I finally learned to look at my inventory for help and with a lot of help from avatar Penney Theas, my friend and coworker, I became properly dressed and could move on to other experiences. By the way, my name in Second Life is Jude Sicling. You can see a photo of my avatar at the top of this report.
I then started exploring Info Island where the libraries are located. It felt safe to me there and I had confidence that I could safely approach other avatars and engage in chat. At the time I enrolled in Second Life there were only nature sounds, you could not hear speech. The reference librarians answered my Second Life questions and offered tours in a "flying chair’. I rode in a bubble to a library rooftop and danced to great music. I learned how to walk and run and fly and jump and climb stairs and go through doors by using key controls on my computer. Most useful of all, I learned how to stop and not walk into water areas over my head and how to get out. It’s a good thing that avatars can’t drown!
I had the good fortune to be able to enroll in the University of Illinois Grad School of Information Science, Second Life class—Virtual World Librarianship—Your Second life with two other staff (Penny Theas and and Laurel Zenovka.) The class topics were: Introduction to Libraries in Virtual Worlds, Second Life 101, Collections, Resources and Exhibits in Virtual Environment, Reference and Information Services in Virtual Worlds, Managing and Working in a Virtual Library or Department and Skills needed by 21st Century Librarians in Virtual Worlds. This was a very interesting experience taking a class virtually and participating through chat by reading the lectures, discussions and comments. We met for two hours in various locations and buildings on Info Island . In one of the classes we spent the two hours dancing and leaping into the air while chatting about how to manage a library in Second Life. We had homework assignments and asynchronous discussions, posted our comments to a forums on Moodle, the course management system used at GSLIS. We each were required to shadow a reference librarian for two hours. We were given a Babbler for our avatars so that we could have instant language translations through chat.
Avatars from all over the world are residents of Second Life. We took a virtual tour of Morocco wearing a fez that supplied information to us, we toured the info island libraries, attended a Browning exhibit, received note cards with all kinds of useful information and given free tee shirts for our avatars. Class attendees wore everything from Dragon suits to Goth outfits to business attire. Some avatars wore a different outfit each week. We learned who our classmates were, how long they had been in Second Life, what Second Life groups they belonged to, where their favorite Second Life spots were to visit and who they were in real life. Avatars appear on screen with a bubble over their head that includes the avatar’s name. When you click on to the bubble you can read their profiles and even make notes about your experience with that avatar. The notes are for your eyes only.
By participating as a librarian avatar in this virtual world, I have a heightened sense of uses for this medium and possibilities for reference information service beyond web searches for librarianship in the future. I think that libraries will be developing virtual library worlds in the very near future. Libraries could have virtual tours, offer e books, conduct classes, have virtual exhibits and offer programs virtually.
On another level, as a form of social networking with people with disabilities, this medium offers unlimited possibilities. Virtual friends can be made without real world risks, cities and neighborhoods can be created with only the boundaries of their imaginations. One can take classes, visit virtual worlds, participate in chat discussions, go to a pub or club, dance, see art. Avatars can participate in a sport, attend live shows and concerts and shop. Almost anything can be done virtually that could be done in real life. One can find avatars that have your same interests. All this can be done on a computer.
This experience has been extremely interesting. I think that the more time put into exploring and living in Second Life, the more one can get out of it. There many possibilities, socially and educationally. I think that virtual worlds are the future and becoming a resident of Second Life is the beginning.
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