Tourist Information for Second Life: The Community Virtual Library (CVL) in Cookie

Several of the bloggers I follow* had mentioned the party for the 15th Anniversity of the Community Virtual Library, so I went to see how the library had been updated since I last visited.

What does a library look like in a virtual world? Well, on the surface it looks like a RL library, with card files, bookshelves, and reading rooms, although I suppose that a RL librarian might have cringed at the sight of all of us walking around with wine in our hands, paws, or whatevers. (Not because of our appearance, but because wine stains are hard to get out of paper..)

But it only looked like a RL library. If you touched the books on display or used the card catalogue you were directed to a digital, rather than a physical, book.

The traditional library reference desk.

I am a fan of libraries, and in RL have offered to volunteer at our local one when restrictions are lifted. Here in Second Life the 'library' represents just one aspect of the work of educators networking in virtual reality to seek ways to improve learning and understanding in real life.

I confess I felt outclassed in a group whose members casually discuss topics like metamodernism, metaliteracy, and digital citizenship. I am, after all, just a tourist, so I wandered outside and found that you could take a Tardis to the science fiction section of the library - which had a holodeck!

The science fiction library.

Holodeck controls showing the options.

Cookie Region also hosts a variety of other educational activities. There are gathering places scattered around the grounds, and spaces dedicated to music and art.

One of my favorite places there is the building for the Short Poetry Workshop - built at a scale for giants, it has a huge collection of volumes of short poetry composed during the weekly sessions.

Virtual Outworlding has a calendar of the many educational meetings scheduled every week. The calendar is called "Educational Events in the Metaverse", a clue that not all the meetings are in Second Life. Second Life is not the only 'virtual reality'. I believe there is a "Cookie II" Region in Kitely.

These are bookmobiles that can be used in other communities.

I feel I am seeing a glimpse of the future. Covid restrictions brought more of my contemporaries into 'the digital age' because they had to use applications like Zoom to see their grandkids, and many of them have found out that with the right ebook app they can read print more easily. Older people who came to computers late in life may not be comfortable visiting virtual worlds, but will the next generation casually accept them as part of their natural environment?

In my opinion it was a mistake for Linden Labs to stop giving special discounts to educational groups, causing many of them to move to less expensive virtual worlds. When these educational pioneers set their students on the path to 'digital citizenship', it would be nice if it started in Second Life.

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Blooper reel: Some time ago I was visiting the VCL in Cookie and was trying to use the 'Reader' attachment provided by the Library. I forgot that I had an NPC sculpture called "The Reader" in my inventory and was confused why the attachment wasn't working after I put it on.