3D/VR in the Academic Library: Emerging Practices and Trends

This volume, comprising eight chapters from experts in a variety of fields, examines the use of three-dimensional (3D) and virtual reality (VR) technologies in research and teaching, and the library’s vital role in supporting this work. 3D modeling, 3D capture techniques, and VR enable faculty and students to engage with highly detailed 3D data—from cultural heritage artifacts to scientific simulations—in new ways. As 3D and VR projects scale up and move outside of the specialist disciplines where they have existed for decades, many academic libraries are taking the lead in supporting such projects because they are already centers for collaboration, instruction, research, and collection preservation. The volume seeks to prompt greater awareness for library professionals as they develop programs that use 3D and VR technologies and work to integrate changing scholarly demands and conventions with existing library services and policies. Chapters cover 3D content creation, VR visualization and analysis, 3D/VR-based educational deployment, and 3D/VR data curation, providing a snapshot of professional objectives and workflows that have developed around 3D/VR