Second Life
on Mar 12 in Librarianship, SxSw, Tech by Erica FirmentI just spoke with a gentleman who helps run Second Life, and he informed me that there are, like, a billion librarians on SL, who own a string of islands and facilitate information exchange. Can anyone confirm this?
Are we cool or what?
It is totally true. The folks who are spearheading some of the major initiatives are out of the Alliance Library System in Illinois, which is a sister system to mine, Lincoln Trail Libraries System, also in Illinois. The SL librarian stuff happens on InfoIsland.
OK, I feel like there’s something wrong with me: I have tried Second Life a few times now, and I just don’t get it. I wander around…. I don’t get it. I’m obviously doing something wrong and missing the point. I want to get it, because everyone talks about it like it’s loads of fun. Is it because I am not a gamer or sci/fi/fantasy person that I don’t understand this?
Erica, Girlfriend—where you been?! You must have a decent First Life to have missed out on all the SL stuff. Just do a Google search “Second life library” and you’ll find info and discussion (heated and rah-rah) aplenty.
You are so not the only one, Jessica. I have no clue what is going on in SL. If you’re really interested, SL published a book about the game. I think it has basics about the game to help newcomers find their way. If I try to play it again, I may buy the book to help me out.
I have tried Second Life and while I see how it could be fun & cool, my computer apparently doesn’t. I don’t have a super-fast processor or enough memory or something, because everything in SL goes *really* slow and then usually crashes.
Or maybe that’s just me :) But I want to be “cool” and “hip.” I could try again. I think my avatar is naked still?
Are we cool or what?
We definitely are! If you get an avatar, you can visit the library I’ve been working on .
Arrgh. HTML didn’t work. Here’s the ugly link: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cybrary%20City%20II/66/44/22/
Ok. Y’all convinced me. I’m checking it out. You guys and your early adoption of new technologies!
This sounds and looks extremely dangerous.I saw a movie once about an on-line game and if you didn’t know the answer you were hunted until you lost your head! Get back to reality girl! Face the real world.
Did you see the SLJ cover story from January?
Unfortunately, I had to quit my job as a librarian and seek employment in the private sector to afford a computer fast enough to become a Second Life librarian. *wry grin*
Info Archipelago? Formerly volcanoes of info?
I ran into Stephen Whelan at the Ontario Library Conference and he said he is building a whole library in Second Life.
Jeff
I have a Second Life avatar. And I found several libraries.
More importantly, I found the Steampunk islands.
Course, not having anyone to play with, it’s not that much fun.