Wooo and hoo! Talis and Alliance Library System have just announced the construction of a new island in Second Life – Cybrary City. Read more about Cybrary City here.

It will have resources for librarians, plus provide space for real life libraries to have a SL prescence. No mention of the word “free”, but here’s hoping.

Rochelle and CW have recently written about their first experiences in Second Life. Mine was similar when there wasn’t an event on, but I had a great time at the Grand Opening of Info Island – watching Lorelei Junot behead herself with a guillotine at the spooky costume party and sitting in the cinema watching Rocky Horror Picture Show with other Library Friends. Oh yes, I also enjoyed the learning in the auditorium.

Image: Home not so sweet. Not sure about the pink hippo either.

The Linden gods of Second Life have played dice with my avatar, poor Emerald Dumont (green hill – geddit?) by making her home inside a small model of a volcano in Mahulu. Everytime I teleport home, I end up in the volcano, thrashing about in fire and have to ask passerbys to teleport me out. At least I’m not like John Blyberg, who in SL had a grand piano stuck on his head for a while.

I’m beginning to think of SL not as a game or a virtual world, but as a user interface, similar to a web browser. A successful game would be interesting all the time. A successful virtual world would feel “real” all of the time.

A user interface can be friendly or unfriendly, but if it works well, then your focus should be on what you used it for, rather than the interface itself. If you browse the web with Firefox and what you find is boring, offensive, or unsatisfying, you don’t walk away disenchanted with Firefox.

In academic libraries, we will soon have huge numbers of undergraduates who are used to this type of interface from gaming. They love it and understand it. To deliver the services where they are, we should understand it – and maybe learn to love it – pink hippos and all.

TODAY’S HIPPIE CARD: Move away

( I never, ever cheat with these cards, just draw ’em as they come, but they keep being pertinent to my posts!)