From jokaydia: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Games in Education

Libraries in Second Life

Second Life currently hosts a range of Librarieswhere residents can access information and engage in events, discussions, and displays on a wide range of topics.

Explore the projects below or Return to the Educational Uses of Second Life Homepage.

Alliance Virtual Library and the Info Island Archipelago

The Alliance Virtual Library Project (formerly known as the Second Life Library 2.0 project) is supported by Alliance Library System and Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) and currently co-ordinates the InfoIslands Archipeligo (SLurl), a community of libraries, museums and education in Second Life. The project aims to extend the traditional programs currently offered online to librarians and library users into 3D virtual worlds, and supports a range of programs and Institutions in exploring these concepts in virtual worlds.

The Second Life Library Project supports a number of spaces resources and organisations including:

• Four main library buildings (Pope, Bell, Smith, and Foster) hold the virtual library collections, including genre and special resource areas such as Mystery Manor and Sci Fiction, Peace Park, Readers's Garden, and the Genealogy Resource Center.
• Info Island International - Helpful Information on SL in many languages, landmarks for corresponding SL locations for those languages, places to meet and chat
• Infotainment - A combination of information and entertainment this island contains museums, a theater, and a jazz club
• Imagination Island which includes Rachelville - a collection of resources for children's literature, beautiful gardens and a maze
• Vendor Villiage which hosts shops for library vendors to display products and innovations
• Illumination Island which is dedicated to in-world books and audio books
• Health Info Island a medical library, consumer health, and accessibility resources
• Cybrary City and Cybrary City 2 - InfoIsland's community of individual libraries
• Only Yesterday! - a sim dedicated to the depression era in the US
• Investing InfoIsland - Learn about smart investing in a relaxing and fun atmosphere
• Bradburyville - A Ray Bradbury themed sim
• the ICT Library which contains a huge collection of resources for educators.

For further information visit the official AVL Project blog, check out the project events calendar, view imges via the Second Life Library 2.0 Flickr group or join the Alliance Virtual Library Facebook group.

 

Eye4You Alliance Island in Teen Second Life

The Eye4You Alliance project is owned and managed by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. It aims to offer library services to teens on the Second Life Teen Grid, and provides a virtual space for teens to come together to engage in streamed audio and video of authors, politicians, or other teen related speakers; to participate in classes taught by teens and adults; to engage in book discussions, walk-throughs of book or movie scenes; to create and view machinima, art displays, music and drama performance; and to participate in social activities such as contests, parties and dancing.

The Eye4You Project also aims to provide opportunities for other youth serving organisations to explore uses of Second Life and has worked with a range of organisations to bring engaging inworld activities to kids on the teen grid. In 2008 events included:

• uCanTu - a competition sponsored by the Tech Museum, which invited teens to create a museum exhibit which explored a topic of issue of their choice
• 2nd College Fair - which brought colleges and teens from across the US together to talk education, employment, careers and pathways
• NASA at Eye4You - a range of events including NASA Office Hours where young people can regularly meet with space scientists for questions and conversations.

For further information visit the Eye4You Alliance Blog, check out the Eye4You Alliance MySpace, read the article 'Teen Library in Second Life', download the Eye4YouAlliance Brochure (PDF), view images from Eye4You on Flickr or watch videos from the Eye4You Alliance team on Blip.tv.