Do we remove all the walls? Second Life librarianship

Over five hundred librarians worldwide are experimenting with providing library services in the Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) called Second Life, including a small group of Australian librarians who constructed the Australian Libraries Building. This paper describes the interface and capabilities of a MUVE, the evolution of the Australian Libraries Building and the library objects built and scripted within it. It suggests some professional advantages for librarians who experiment within Second Life and the technical and managerial considerations of setting up a library presence there. It concludes by describing how Second Life library services have evolved, as librarians better understood the potential of the MUVE interface. 1VALA2008 Conference Librarians are experts at managing information in the physical space in our buildings. We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. We have organised information online for approximately the last thirty years, so we are skilled at this. Librarianship in a multi user virtual environment (MUVE) melds these skills in new ways. Over five hundred librarians have been experimenting with providing library services within Second Life, a MUVE with over thirty thousand users online at any time. This paper outlines the advantages for librarians of experimenting in Second Life and the technical and managerial decisions librarians should make when considering setting up a library presence in a MUVE. I describe the evolution of the Australian Libraries Building within Second Life, outline in detail some of the scripted library objects created there and conclude by describing how Second Life librarianship has evolved as librarians become more familiar with the interface