Libraries in Second Life

Second Life (SL) is an immersive 3D environment that can be used for entertainment and educational purposes. Due to increasing interest in digital services, some libraries have established virtual services on Second Life.

By 2007, there were more than 40 libraries in Second Life and the number is increasing. Many of those libraries can be found in Cybrary City, part of the information archipelago on Second Life. This place was built for libraries to set up their virtual services and for displaying their resources. Libraries can provide their services while also learning new skills for 21st-century librarianship.

Library services in Second Life can be found at the following SL locations:

Second Life libraries are examples of immersive learning environments. Users can interact with the services in practical ways, such as walking around a virtual space. Libraries in Second Life often put on digital exhibitions as part of their services, for example an exhibit displaying virtual representations of Van Gogh paintings, including Starry Night. The aim of virtual library services is to attract new users to traditional libraries as well as establishing links with librarians from all over the world. Most of these services are run by volunteers.

There have been numerous initiatives to create educational spaces within Second Life. There are Victorian areas in which residents dress in period clothes, an Egyptian tomb and a Renaissance Island created by the Alliance Second Life Libraries. Central Missouri State University has also received funding to create a reproduction of 1920s Harlem.

Libraries can also put on virtual events such as conferences, seminars and lectures. In 2008 and 2009 Alliance Library System (ALS) organised a conference called Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums Conference. It took place in the New Media Consortium Conference Center in Second Life and was designed to "provide a gathering place for librarians, information professionals, educators, museologists, and others to learn about and discuss the educational, informational, and cultural opportunities of virtual worlds".

Virtual libraries which are independent, run by volunteers and not affiliated with a traditional library are often the most successful ones in Second Life. Second Life-only virtual libraries tend to be more successful than the Second Life branches of public libraries. Users suggest that the libraries in Second Life serve a niche population, which results in difficulties with marketing. Staff of public libraries have different perspectives on SL when they are experimenting with it, which results in general conflict.

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