Next presentation at the JIBS conference (link below in a previous post) is on the Library in Second Life, given by Cathal McCauley, University College Dublin.
About a third of the audience has a SL avatar, surprisingly high. UCD have been in SL since March 7th 2007. Discussion on what SL is like, how it works - avatars, objects, currency exchange rates, communication, 'not all fun, much more than a game'. Not fair to dismiss it as a game - UCD sees SL as similar to the traditional web. US dominated, uncertainty, rapid change, copyright concerns, moral issues and viruses. New issues include virtual world protest groups, riots and so on - but how new is that? Most importantly, reminiscent of the web in the mid-1990s.
Tourism Ireland is using SL at the Dublin pub 'Blarney Stone' to promote Ireland, gigs, exhibitions and so on.
Educators in SL. Many universities already have presence, mainly the US, but UK, Australia, Denmark, France, Netherlands and so on. Delivery of real classes to students, skills practice, seminars, conferences. Key drivers - distance learning, media, technology and design classes and libraries.
Libraries in SL. Over 40 islands including Infoislands 1 and 2, Genealogy Research Centre, library gallery, mystery manor, performance centre, science centre and sf centre. Also a health information island. Cybrary City I and II. All mentioned briefly and discussed.
What are they doing? Reference Services, book discussion groups, anonymous focus groups, reader outreach, making old content available in new ways, training, networking.
Why was SL of interest to UCD? Matched their institutional strategy and library strategy. Reader preferences - 30% of their users said that they wanted a virtual reference desk when asked in a survey. Resources - not resource intensive; quick to get up and running. PR - seen as a 'good thing'. UCD have features such as user surveys, email, ebooks, presentations, work groups. Feedback has been encouraging; lots of publicity for example. Continuing to use it for service delivery, what readers want, training easy to offer, another route to get hard to reach readers, low cost, PR benefit (but for how long?) Tread carefully because of access and security issues, high end pc needed, ownership concerns, not very reliable, digital nomads, cultural issues
Challenges - variety of options, risks, can't be an end use in itself, 'mum and dad at the disco' factor, training is hard to find, library management issues, part of an evolving service mix.
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