Second Life: McGill University Library

Second Life, other than being a ubiquitous university discussion point, is a online virtual world that some libraries have begun to use as a content delivery platform. The most interesting thing about Second Life is that, for all the talking about it, I have yet to meet somebody who uses it, let alone uses it to access library content. The few that bother to actually download and install the program so that they can have something to say about it for these classes typically log in, look around, get stuck in a few buildings, and never return.

I should be the ideal user for an online virtual world. I have played computer and video games since I was a kid, and I have been fascinated by the promise of virtual worlds ever since reading Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash back when I was a teenager. When I first heard about Second Life (hereafter referred to as SL), I read that the developers had been heavily influenced by the ideas in Snow Crash, which made me particularly interested in trying it out. Needless to say, I was bitterly disappointed.

Now, months after my second attempt (which was years after my first attempt), I re-entered SL, to check out McGill University’s Second Life home.

If you are in SL, the site can be found by searching for it with a location search.
If you are on the McGill library website, you have to go to the “Using the library” page, find the “Computers and Software” page, and find the subsection “Research Tools”. Finally, there is a paragraph that tells you to “Visit the McGill Library’s island in Second Life, where you are now able to chat with a librarian, check when the next library workshop is taking place, and meet fellow students.”
Of course, if you were clever, you would realize that you can chat with a librarian quickly and easily from the site that you are on already, as there is a clear link from the main page of the website. The main page also has a prominent link to upcoming workshops. In other words, just finding the link to the SL application took navigating through 4 screens, whereas all the features offered by SL can be easily found on the library’s main page. At this point, the user still has to install the program (if they are not already a SLer), create an avatar, learn how to navigate the SL world, and find their way to the virtual McGill library. A conservative estimate for the time it takes to do this, based on how long it took me my first time, is about an hour. So, now that they have arrived, what do they have to look forward to? In order to answer that question, I returned, once again, to SL.

McGill University on Second Life

My intrepid Second Life Avatar, Chesterfield Hellershanks, logged back into Second Life for a third time, to once again slog his way through the mire in a brave attempt to learn about virtual worlds and the library. He made his way to the McGill University library. In real life, I spent a year attending McGill, so I figured it was as good a place as any to check out. I know exactly how nice their library is, and how useful the services that they provide are for students.

The most immediate difference I noticed was that the SL McGill library was completely deserted. A lone beach-ball rolled by like some sort of sad, virtual tumbleweed.

Chesterfield ponders the emptiness of space

He called out, “What is the point of a Second Life library?” but nobody answered. A lifeless mannequin gave Chesterfield a McGill t-shirt, which he put on. For some reason, putting on the t-shirt made the rest of his clothes disappear. Since nobody was around, he figured that it didn’t really matter.

Chesterfield Hellershanks, unintentionally pantsless

Eventually, Chesterfield made his way through the various pixelated constructions, finding a page that looked as if it contained valuable information. He read the page. Aha, finally he had found some useful, relevant information that would answer his questions about how to contact library staff and find out about upcoming events! Hooray, he cheered, to nobody in particular. Hooray.

You have found...internet.

Looking more closely at the page, he realized that the tall, virtual document looked suspiciously familiar. He right-clicked the document, and was sent into Firefox, where he found himself staring at the McGill University Library website. Hooray, he cried, I have wasted my time.

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U of A Digital Initiatives Technology Librarian Peter Binkley points out in his blog that “I still can’t find anyone who understands why a Second Life library is such a great idea.”  While the efforts of SL librarians seem earnest enough, Binkley isn’t convinced that SL libraries are the best use of librarian time and resources. Are we really needed or wanted in SL? He wonders if, “in our efforts to insert our services into our users’ webflow, we risk pursuing them into the places where they go to avoid us“. As far as I’m concerned, SL libraries have to figure out how to offer users something that they can’t get more easily from the library’s website. If SL libraries focus on simply routing users back onto the internet, then there is no reason for users to return to the SL library. The most useful feature of SL is as a virtual meeting place; the best possible use of SL library space would be for meetings and lectures that couldn’t necessarily happen outside of this arena, in the case of McGill, meetings that feature speakers or guests that are physically outside of Montreal. SL would be a great place to have a talk that includes more than one university, for instance. If the Mcgill Library is going to offer anything useful or relevant in the virtual setting of SL, it has to play to the strenghts, not the limitations of the system.

I realize that the big difference between Snow Crash and SL is that in the novel the metaverse was the internet. There wasn’t a 2d and a 3d internet, the virtual world was all-encompassing. SL offers us something less compelling in many ways, it relies heavily on pre-existing web content that is more easily acessible in other ways. Instead of recycling web content, SL librarians are going to have to find ways of offering users compelling reasons for returning to their virtual libraries if they want to become relevant in the virtual world. Additionally, in the case of McGill, having no visible mention of the fact that the university library is on SL until deep into the website doesn’t make it visible to patrons. Even if there were things going on in SL, how would patrons know?

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