This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Johnson Marilyn

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Johnson Marilyn

Author:Johnson, Marilyn [Johnson, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Adult, Sociology
ISBN: 0061431613
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2009-01-02T07:00:00+00:00


What could librarians do in Second Life? They could serve as sources of information about the virtual world, as Georgette had just done. They could help patron-avatars with the mysteries of Second Life. They could research historic sites or eras for people trying to build immersive environments. They could create and furnish buildings on Second Life that they called “libraries,” some looking like classic Carnegie libraries from the late nineteenth century, some like futuristic landing pads, all stocked with links to websites and e-books. They could create models of futuristic libraries quickly and cheaply. They could host literary events, book discussion groups, panels, and readings (a surprisingly fun thing to do in Second Life). They could collaborate, share digital resources, and meet. I’m convinced there’s no better way to connect with people from far-flung places than on an island in Second Life—it feels like you’re all together in one place. The same was true of the parties, where librarians had fun and incidentally gave expression to some of the metaphors of library work—appearing with fairy wings, for instance, or sitting on a chair made of floating books.

Which brings us to the most entertaining thing of all that librarians could do in virtual reality—hang out together. At any hour of the day or night, from any time zone, I could fall in with a group of librarians making a mock video where they danced in sync to an old disco tune, or chatting together in a tree house. Something happened when librarians with digital skills and imagination got together. They invented things. Estimates of the number of librarians on the site were hard to verify, but of the two member groups I followed, one had almost eight hundred members, the other, more than three thousand—plenty to play with, and more than enough for a research-and-development department for the profession, which is what Second Life sometimes seems to be.

And, naturally, librarian-avatars could do what any regular librarian could do: answer our questions.

One night, for instance, I found myself logging into Second Life while at a conference in Alexandria, Virginia. I was nervous about navigating the area the next day and too keyed up to sleep. Three librarian-avatars were hanging around the reference plaza. “Hi, Mari, how’s it going?” I told them I was trying to plan my day at the conference, and the concierge was off duty. “We’ll help!” they said, and while we gossiped, they also Googled and networked. Within minutes, they gave me directions for negotiating my way via public transportation, advice from a librarian who had made a similar trip, the phone number of a reliable cab company, and the approximate cost of cabfare from the conference site to the train station. They made it easy, erasing my anxiety while arming me cheerfully with information in the middle of the night, for free. “Np,” they typed as I teleported away, “no problem.”

That’s what they did with one hand. With the other, they cooked up crazy library ideas, like Bradburyville,



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