Building the Virtual Library

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Building the Virtual Library

• Academic Environments Virtual Worlds.
• April 30, 2008

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Kean University

• 13,050 full-time Graduate and Undergraduate
  Students.
• 376 full-time faculty.
• 5 Colleges 50 undergraduate and 31 graduate
  degree programs.
• 18 division III varsity teams and 30 fraternities
  and sororities.
• Average 30 minute commute to NYC.
• (Kean University, retrieved 2/19/08)

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Old School.

• (Kean University Archives, 1959)

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New School

• (Kean Students, 2007)

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Digital Natives

• Todays students are not only computer-savvy,
  they are Digital Natives. They have grown up in
  an online world.
• (Prensky, 2001)

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Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants.

• (Jukes Dosaj, 2003)

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• Video gaming is not just for kids anymore. The
  average gamer is 25 30 years old.
• Typical gamers spend up to 22 hours per week
  online, in video game environments such as World
  of Warcraft or City of Heroes.
• (Yee, 2006)

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Gamers today, CEOs tomorrow.

• leaders develop and operate in environments that
  are highly distributed, global, hypercompetitive,
  and virtual not unlike todays business world
• -- Eric Lessner,
• IBM Institute for Business Values
• (Career World, Jan 2008)

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Snow Crash Second Life

• In 1992, science fiction author Neal Stephenson
  wrote a novel about a future society who lived
  much of their lives in a type of virtual online
  world.
• The novel was called Snow Crash, and the
  virtual world was called The Metaverse.
• The citizens of the Metaverse lived their lives
  as Avatars, which were virtual representations
  of actual humans.

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I cant even manage my first life!

• Second Life launched in 2003. It was created by a
  company called Linden Labs in San Francisco.
• Linden Labs intended for the world of Second Life
  to be designed and built by its residents.
• Some users of Second Life purchase land and set
  up virtual businesses, which can earn real-world
  cash.
• At this time, the US Dollar is equal to
  approximately 270 Linden Dollars.

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Educational Institutions in Second Life
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If you build it, they will come.

• Librarians came to Second Life in 2006.
• The Alliance Library Group created the Info
  Island reference area, which is currently staffed
  by 64 volunteer librarians.
• Includes several themed islands which comprise
  the Info Archipelago, including such places as
  Renaissance Island, Cybrary City,
  EduIsland, and the newly-created Land of
  Lincoln.
• (Dejavu, personal communication, 2/15/08)

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Building a better library

• Second life residents have access to a variety of
  design tools which allow users to build
  three-dimensional objects ex nihilo.
• These objects can be resized, reshaped, and
  painted with images that are uploaded directly
  into Second Life.
• The residents of Second Life can then sell these
  objects for Linden dollars, or use them to
  decorate their own virtual homes and/or
  workplaces.

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and now

• A brief tour of the virtual Nancy Thompson
  Library

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Our Feature Presentation
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References

• Gamers Today, CEOs Tomorrow (Jan. 2006) Career
  World. 36(4), p7-7, 2/3p
• Hillis, Scott. (10/10/07) IBM, Linden Lab seek
  open borders for virtual worlds. Reuters
  Newswire. Retrieved 2/20/07 from
  http//secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/10/10/i
  bm-linden-lab-seek-open-borders-for-virtual-worlds
  .
• Jukes, Ian, Dosaj, Anita. (Feb., 2003) The
  Infosaavy Group. Retrieved 3/10/08 from
  http//www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disc
  onnect/landscape.html
• Kean University (retrieved 2/19/08) from
  www.kean.edu
• Lee, James. (7/5/2005) From sweatshops to
  stateside corporations, some people are profiting
  off of MMO gold. Computer Gaming World.
  Retrieved 2/18/07 fromhttp//www.1up.com/do/featu
  re?cId3141815
• Prensky, Marc, (Oct., 2001) Digital Natives,
  Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon. 9(5). Pg 1-6
• Second Life. (Retrieved 2/15/08) from
  www.secondlife.com.
• Stephenson, Neal. (1992) Snow Crash. Bantam
  Books. New York.
• World of Warcraft. (Retrieved 2/8/08) from
  www.worldofwarcraft.com
• Yee, N. (2006). The Demographics, Motivations and
  Derived Experiences of Users of
  Massively-Multiuser Online Graphical
  Environments. PRESENCE Teleoperators and Virtual
  Environments, 15, 309-329.