[Web4lib] SecondLife Was: Campus without library (warning: long post)

[Ms Norma Jean Hewlett]

Hi Steve,

You wrote:
> I confess that I was fascinated by my initial
> Second Life experience and found a lot to like, but I also quickly
> concluded that it was at best a precursor of what is coming.  On top
> of that, the bandwidth demands of the environment remain enormous and
> stability is still an issue. 

I totally agree with you. That said, I firmly believe that SecondLife is
the best virtual platform currently available for any type of academic
project. Based on my limited experience there (18 months, with
a bit more than 2,500 hours inworld) I'm convinced that
SecondLife shines as a place for networking, collaboration, and
discussion. Attending a meeting or class inworld is a shared experience
that far surpasses anything I've experienced with other online meeting or
class management software.

Other online environments, including video chat, leave me feeling as
though I'm sitting alone by my computer, communicating with people who
are far away. On SecondLife, as you point out, I feel as though we're
all in the same room.

SecondLife has an enormous drop-out rate - the vast majority of people
who create avatars and try it out seem to give up within the first hour
or two. I'm not sure what makes some of us stay.

In my case, I think it was because I joined SecondLife with the goal of
attending an inworld meeting about SecondLife libraries that was hosted
by Alliance Library System. I knew barely enough to be able to follow a
teleport link and sit down, and my little Dell laptop was certainly not
well-suited for the task, but I was amazed by the way SecondLife makes
you feel as though you are sitting next to professional
colleagues from all over the United States and all over the world.

Later I took some inworld classes through the University of Illinois,
and I was impressed by how much better the experience was than other
online classes I've attended. Around that same time, I began
attending meetings of the Information Literacy Group,
which is based at Sheffield University in the UK. Thanks to these
starting points, I now have a group of professional colleagues and
friends that extends all over the world. It means a great deal to me,
especially since I run a one-person library on a satellite campus and
am rather isolated.

I haven't seen you inworld, so I hope I haven't missed you when you
stopped by the Steelhead Public Library. If so, please IM me the next
time you are inworld. Riven was very busy this weekend attending a
series of formal balls celebrating 12 different SecondLife communities.
I find I spend a great deal of time at events in Steelhead and neighboring
virtual communities, just as most real life library directors spend a
good deal of time attending community events in the town where their
library is located.

You wrote:
> ...while its fun to play with your appearance...it does
> not always have the effects hoped for.  A shy person remains somewhat
> shy even if they are able to look incredibly attractive

Yes, I find that although Riven looks nothing like me (much younger
and more attractive) she is pretty much still me. However I've also
noticed that I seem to carry quite a bit of her back into real life
with me -- I smile a lot more now and tend to view strangers as
potential friends. Many of my inworld friends are people I would
probably never have become close to in real life, but SecondLife
allows us to bypass common barriers like age and personal
appearance.

My friend Tom Boellstorff, whom I met on SL, has a good deal to say
about this in his book "Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist
Explores the Virtually Human" (Princeton Univ. Press, 2008). Any academic
who is considering using SL as the platform for a project would
benefit from reading this book.

You wrote:
> Just as in real life you will find that library patrons
> are mostly a self-selected group not necessarily reflective of society
> at large.  On the other hand, anyone truly comfortable in a library is
> also someone who is part of the intellectual continuity of society...
> I suspect overall, however, that what you have found and will
> continue to find, is that libraries and churches have some things in
> common.  They meet certain social as well as intellectual/emotional
> needs.

Sorry, I don't agree with you here. I can't see that my library patrons are
"a self-selected group not necessarily reflective of society at large"
except in the obvious way this is true of all SecondLife residents.
I'd say they are quite representative of the online community of
Steelhead. Some are serious users and supporters of real life libraries.
Others haven't set foot in a real life library in years.

Nor do I think my library has much in common with a church. We don't
have any churches in Steelhead, but there are many on SecondLife.
People don't come to me for spiritual guidance, and the profusion of
social activities available on SecondLife means they have no need to come to
the library if they want social interaction. There's something else
going on here, but I'm still not sure exactly what it is. I suspect it
may be plain old intellectual curiosity. :-)

Looking forward to meeting you and continuing this discussion inworld :-)

Jean Hewlett, MLIS
Regional Librarian, University of San Francisco

aka Riven Homewood
Director, Steelhead Public Library
Steelhead City, SecondLife
Riven Homewood's activities on SecondLife are done on my own time and do
not officially represent the University of San Francisco.





----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D." <patamia at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:16 pm
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Campus without library - summing up
To: Ms Norma Jean Hewlett <hewlett at usfca.edu>
Cc: rosen at usfca.edu, jjdrinkwater at gmail.com, web4lib at webjunction.org

> Hello Ms. Hewlett aka Ms. Homewood!
>
>   I do have an avatar on Second Life, but I am not truly active in
> the community.  Its not that I am shy (quite the contrary), but my
> original limited purpose in creating the account was to become
> familiar enough with the environment to factor it into my long range
> thinking.  In fact, I am principal author on a research paper (kept
> confidential at the moment, but released as needed) which develops the
> background and rationale for the research institute we are creating.
> In that paper one of the points made was that 3-D virtual experiences
> of the kind we expect to be able to use are demonstrated within the
> Second Life paradigm.  I confess that I was fascinated by my initial
> Second Life experience and found a lot to like, but I also quickly
> concluded that it was at best a precursor of what is coming.  On top
> of that, the bandwidth demands of the environment remain enormous and
> stability is still an issue.  It will get better -- but that is
> somebody else's problem.
>
>   Nevertheless, there is no question that our institute will have a
> representation on Second Life.  We will not rush to do it, but it will
> be there -- including the library, of course.  In the meantime, we can
> use any number of virtual conference facilities already set up and
> learn from the experience.
>
>   I will definitely visit Steelhead Public Library the next time I am
> "in world" -- probably next week.  I will try to find you, and, of
> course, if you are online I will be able to do that without too much
> trouble.  I can teleport right to the library if you are there and
> available.   You will discover that my avatar is not very customized,
> but I have learned some interesting truths about second life:  the
> first one being that it is remarkably like real life.  What I mean by
> this is illustrated by the observation that while its fun to play with
> your appearance -- and a lot of people do this to extremes -- it does
> not always have the effects hoped for.  A shy person remains somewhat
> shy even if they are able to look incredibly attractive.  A not shy
> person (which I claim to be) is neither intimidated by how attractive
> somebody's avatar is (though it can be a pleasant experience) nor
> overly concerned about what they look like beyond a certain threshold.
> In short, core personality is tough to change and not subject to
> variables you thought it was.
>
>   Leaving that personal stuff aside, the fact is that Second Life
> demonstrates a lot of potential and some things work remarkably well.
> Communication with an avatar can be so realistic that you mentally
> really do project yourself onto the scene.  If you can do that, then
> you can project yourself fully from other cues as well.  If you can do
> that, then Second Life becomes a paradise for experimenting with what
> really counts in framing your experience.
>
>   In your case, you can elaborate further on what really is behind
> the affection people display  for "their" library.   Bear in mind my
> first rule, however: Second Life is ultimately like real life in ways
> that matter.  Just as in real life you will find that library patrons
> are mostly a self-selected group not necessarily reflective of society
> at large.  On the other hand, anyone truly comfortable in a library is
> also someone who is part of the intellectual continuity of society.
>
>   I suspect overall, however, that what you have found and will
> continue to find, is that libraries and churches have some things in
> common.  They meet certain social as well as intellectual/emotional
> needs.  I would argue that libraries are more open and less dogmatic
> than churches and so promote more harmony and tolerance than churches
> do, but the social attraction to either arises from nearly the same
> set of personal needs.
>
>   From a business standpoint, Second Life and environments like it
> meet some important practical needs.  These include reducing the cost
> of travel and promoting conferencing and networking without costly and
> time consuming arrangements.  I think the most exciting thing is that
> your imagination can be turned loose to create interactive
> environments which powerfully display information in ways that are
> simply impractical in real life (for now, anyway).  For us and our
> institute all of these are crucial.  We are planning our own
> proprietary system for basic organizational cohesiveness and
> collaborative communication, but will also benefit enormously from the
> availability of virtual environments where the social and the
> practical come together.  Our globally dispersed researcher pool will
> have these venues to truly get to know each other in ways that
> transcend technical collaboration at the same time they remove the
> barriers of physical distance.
>
>  I personally want to learn more from you about what you perceive are
> the essential elements of a library based on your Second Life
> experiences.  You have already found that books per se are not the
> essence of what a library represents.  I would be very interested in
> what you conclude is the abstracted essence.  Clearly, you have found
> that there is a strong social element, but can you pinpoint the social
> needs even more or identify a set of needs whose subsets intersect
> with the need sets of most patron?  Does the perceived possibility for
> serendipity play a role in attractiveness of the environment? (E.g. Is
> the prospect of unexpected discovery and personal encounter in that
> particular environment one of its important attractions?)
>
>   Okay, I think I have meandered around this topic enough.  I hope it
> was at least entertaining, but I am more serious than most people
> about abstracting the essence of things -- and when setting about to
> create change this can be crucially important. (E.g. piloting an
> airplane is fundamentally not like driving a car for reasons not
> explained by going from 2-D to 3-D.  There is a shift in the essential
> abstractions which define what is being manipulated.)
>
>
> On 11/20/08, Ms Norma Jean Hewlett <hewlett at usfca.edu> wrote:
> >
> >  Hi Steve, Alan and all,
> >  My SecondLife avatar, Riven Homewood, is the Director of the
> Steelhead>  Public Library. This library exists only in cyberspace
> and does not have
> >  any real life counterpart. It is the town library for the
> SecondLife>  community of Steelhead, which recreates a fantasy
> version of an 1890s
> >  Oregon town.
> >
> >  Although on SecondLife we could make a library quite literally
> look like
> >  anything we want, we have chosen to work in a classic Carnegie
> Library,>  based on the old public library in Petaluma, California.
> (The real life
> >  building
> >  is now used as a historical museum.) This was a conscious
> choice, both
> >  in order to blend in with the architecture of the surrounding
> virtual>  neighborhood and to evoke mental images of a traditional
> library.>
> >  At present, SecondLife does not display textual data well, so
> our focus
> >  is on activities such as bookgroups, writing workshops and
> storytelling.>  These bring people together and encourage
> intellectual discussion,
> >  two areas in which SecondLife excels.
> >
> >  We also have a collection of about 200 period books, in the form of
> >  SecondLife book objects that link to Project Gutenberg or other
> online>  sources. Most of these were made available to us through
> the generosity
> >  of JJ Drinkwater, Director of the Caledon Library on SecondLife.
> >
> >  I sometimes do a good deal of what could be defined as roving
> reference,>  since my neighbors frequently ask me questions and I
> find the
> >  information for them. I don't bother about keeping regular
> reference>  hours at the library building, because like anyone on
> SecondLife I'm
> >  easily reached via chat or instant message.
> >
> >  The most interesting thing about all of this, in my opinion, is
> that my
> >  virtual home and other virtual communities seem to feel their
> community>  is not complete without a library. SPL is a member of a
> virtual library
> >  consortium, Alexandrian Free Library, which is composed of similar
> >  libraries in other themed communities on SecondLife.
> >
> >  JJ and I recently presented about our libraries at Internet
> Librarian,>  and our presentation slides are available online at
> >  http://tinyurl.com/63uxbre if you would like to learn more.
> You're also
> >  welcome to stop by SPL any time you're inworld on SecondLife --
> >  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Steelhead/120/56/28
> >
> >  Jean Hewlett
> >  Regional Librarian, Univ. of San Francisco
> >
> >  AKA
> >  Riven Homewood
> >  Director, Steelhead Public Library
> >  Steelhead City, SecondLife
> >  Riven Homewood's activities on SecondLife are done on my own
> time and do
> >  not officially represent the University of San Francisco.
> >
> >
> --
> Steven E. Patamia, Ph.D., J.D.
> Personal Cell: (352) 219-6592
>
>
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