Second Life

Second Life is a 3D virtual world where users create their own avatar which can then move between various lands and interact with other avatars.  It is a tool which has been utilised by organisations such as universities, libraries and professional bodies.  Second Life presents an opportunity to create a space for a group to collaborate and learn in.  It can be made to resemble the institution it is representing or it can be fantasy.  It allows direct interaction by individuals or groups either through physical interaction of the avatars and also allows communication between avatar owners through the use of IM or voice with the aid of a headset/microphone.  

This means that a library can recreate itself in a space where users can feel as if they are accessing the physical library whilst not leaving their own home.  Applying this to libraries, Second Life could be used to conduct virtual library tours, run classes such as for information literacy or social groups such as book clubs.  Libraries could also provide a reference service to users via its Second Life space.

However Second Life does present difficulties.  Firstly users have to be willing to download the Second Life software to be able to use it; however, Second Life needs specific system requirements to function on any pc.  PC’s which don’t meet specification will mean Second Life either won’t function at all or will function poorly.  Thus not only do the Library’s systems need to be able to ‘handle’ Second Life so too does the pc’s of the users which may wish to access the library service through this medium.  

Consideration also must be given to the time and cost involved in providing such a service as it will need staff able to set up a Library space and avatar in Second Life then it will also require staffing to ensure a presence is available in Second Life for users.  An unstaffed virtual library is on par with an unstaffed physical library if users expect to be provided with a service.  A further concern with Second Life is the difficulty of the system and the total anonymity it affords users.  Unlike many web 2.0 tools which tend to be fairly intuitive, Second Life is not so user friendly and may require a library to first educate users on how to use it before it can be utilised in any other way. 

Second Life is quite exciting in the potential it provides for the provision of a tradition real life library service in a virtual setting.  However getting users to take up the application due to its lack of user friendliness and the hardware requirements could make it a difficult goal for libraries to achieve.

RSS

An RSS feed can be a valuable tool for a library as it allows users to subscribe to a selected feed. Feeds can be blog post, podcasts, vidcasts etc and can be on innumerable topics. For example iLibrarian is a blog which can be subscribed to by RSS feed which provides “news and resources on Library 2.0 and the information revolution”. Information wants to be free is another blog which is a librarian reflecting on the profession and on the tools used to service library patrons. Usually RSS feeds are subscribed to through a feed aggregator, for example Bloglines (unfortunately this will not longer exist soon) or Google Reader, which allows users to access all posts to the blogs they have subscribed to in one place rather than having to go to each individual website. An aggregator is also a good way to handle RSS feeds as it means new posts have held until the user is ready to view them instead of the user’s email inbox being ‘bombarded’ with new feed posts.

Libraries can utilise the ability to push information to users via RSS to communicate information such as:

• Library news and events

• Subject guide news

• New books

• Information literacy programs

These feeds can be in the form of text, videos or audio thus catering for multiple access needs or wants and also allows information to be spread to remote users in a timely manner.

An example of a library using RSS feed can be found on the National Library of Australia's website.   There you can find 3 blogs: Behind the scenes, Events, and Library labs.  Events is self explanatory, Library labs showcases the NLAs experiements with new technology, whilst Behind the scenes provides readers with a glimpse into what happens in the background at the library.  The Behind the scenes is the most frequently updated blog but all 3 can be subscribed to using RSS.

Delicious

Delicious is a tool designed to allow users to bookmark websites and utilise tagging for easy location later on. These tagged bookmarks then can be kept private for the user’s own benefit or made public for all Delicious users. In addition it means bookmarks are no longer tied to the browser/pc they were created on. A Delicious account can be accessed anytime and anywhere a user can access an internet connection.

Whilst users create a list of their own favourite bookmarks, they can also create networks of people. Networks mean that a user can elect to view a list of the latest bookmarks created by their network, all in one place. Similarly, subscriptions allow a user to follow a tag. This then means a user can see the latest bookmarks shared on Delicious which have all been tagged in the same way. Users can also utilise ‘bundling’ whereby tags which are related can be grouped together in a bundle for ease of viewing.

The main downside of users being able to create their own tags is the lack of control over terminology which has many implications. It can create duplication of bookmarks for a website which has been given multiple different tags. This also makes grouping of like bookmarks difficult if their tagging is not alike. Further what a tag means to one user may mean something else to another user especially across cultural and racial borders as Delicious is a tool open to the whole world. To overcome this issue Delicious also allows a user to create ‘tag descriptions’ so that others can see what was meant by the tag applied to a bookmark.

For information organisations Delicious supplies the opportunity to create a common space for staff to access and save bookmarks relevant to their day-to-day work and also for activities such as professional development. Delicious also provides a way for information organisations to create lists of relevant bookmarks, for example subject related, which users can use to fulfil their information needs without the need for them to have to physically visit the organisation.  By utilising the hashtag feature on Delicious, the organisation can also allow users to contribute their own bookmarks to the established lists thus creating a collaborative environment with its users.