Team Wintermute says no to Penn State Library
Initially, the group dynamic was split in terms of how we felt about whether or not we should recommend investing in Second Life (to the Penn State Library). Before research on the subject of libraries in Second Life, some of the group sentiment was against Second Life in general, because of previous (negative) biases and experience with the program. Some of the group viewed the possibility of a library in Second Life as a waste of resources. The other group opinion thought a Second Life library contained the potential to stretch the limits of traditional library resources in a way that was impossible to see through traditional conventions.
While researching current efforts to create an Second Life Library, Paul found unconventional endeavors being employed.
The Alliance Library System (ALS) announced that the National Library of Medicine/Greater Midwest Region has awarded ALS a $40,000 grant to provide consumer health information services in the virtual world of Second Life in 2006. ALS is working on the project in partnership with the University of Illinois Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria, Central Medical Library, Unversity Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands, and TAP Information Services (Info Island website).
The current library efforts in Second Life are collectively known as Info Island. The ALS bought a large space of real estate in Second Life, and sublet pieces of that island to universities and libraries around the world for a small monthly fee. This was done to unite the digitalization efforts of libraries across the world. For example, one island in the archipelago is dedicated to the study of anatomy. Utilizing virtual reality, future doctors are being trained to study the human body. Instead of the traditional cadaver approach, Second Life provides the medium for virtual tours of external and internal parts of the body, from first and third person perspectives.
The San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science has a blog containing a passionate discussion regarding the use of Second Life in their program. Paul highlighted a post from Alynn, student in the university with limiting disability, who voiced her opinion that Second Life is a double edged sword. She has benefited from the virtual world that has allowed her intellectual and digital proximity to her classmates and work. However, according to Alynn, Second Life is unreliable in that it doesn't support technology required to bypass her disability. This puts her at a disadvantage with her classmates because effectively, this disables her within Second Life as well as real life.
Benefits that other current libraries have from their Second Life presence are publicity, expansion, workforce unlimited by location, resources unallocated by location, and the ability to share, collect and collaborate information globally. The scripting advantages that Second Life permits, creates the potential for information to be conveyed in almost any digital manner. This infinite capacity makes Second Life revolutionary.
The most imperative question that needs to be answered is whether or not Penn State Library's move onto Second Life will return profits or generate some source of income. In order to answer this question, one needs to have basic understanding of the Second Life economy. The currency in Second Life is referred to as Linden Dollars. Linden Labs makes the economy independent of pricing by freezing the exchange rate on a market-based currency exchange with US dollars and other international monetary currencies. Linden Labs reports that the Second Life economy generated about 3.6 million dollars in the month of September 2005. The 2006 Second Life gross domestic product (GDP) was 64 million US dollars. Estimates of the 2007 GDP are between 500 million and 600 million US dollars. If you would consider Second Life a country of its own, that would rank it at 166 just below Grenada. Second Life has a larger GDP that 20 other countries. The Second Life economy is no joke. The estimated economic activity in 2007 will create about 550 million US dollars. Money can definitely be made on Second Life.
Linden Labs has a very interesting exchange system set up. They call it LindenX. To control LindenX Linden Labs has set up "circuit breakers". They are market mechanisms that basically freeze the exchange levels if market acts in certain ways. If the average exchange rate in any given day increases or decreases more that 10% the Exchange market freezes for one hour. 20% for two hours. 30% until noon of the next day. These circuit breakers help keep the exchange rate stable. One thing to look out for is Linden Labs handling of monetary policy in Second Life. Linden Labs maintains a currency peg of about L$270 for $1. This is similar to what the Chinese do with Yuan. This practice could be argued to inhibit change in value. Currently, the exchange rate is US$1.00 US dollar for L$267. L$51 million changed hands today.
The Second Life market is a free market or laissez-faire economy. There are two types of costs to to be taken into account when doing business in Second Life: Membership plans and Virtual Land Use Fees (Tier Fee). In order to own land in Second Life, a Premium membership is required. A Premium account comes with advanced technical support and a 512m2 parcel (if you donate 512m2 to a group). These issues are really insignificant compared to the amount of space. If the Penn State Library were to move onto Second Life they would need at least a 1/4 Region or more. An entire region costs $1675 US dollars and an additional $195 per month in Tier fees.
From this brief economic analysis of Second Life, one can assume that the Second Life economy is growing at a stable rate, and under the eyes of Linden labs, the exchange rate between Linden dollars and US dollars has stayed the same over the past few years. This makes it a safe environment for the Penn State Library to do business on without having to worry about the Linden exchange market crash. The facts about increasing annual GDP also prove that profits and revenues are possible.
After examining the research and data collected, we decided that we would not recommend that the Penn State Library invest in Second Life at this time. Firstly, we believe a database would most accurately benefit that majority of students at Penn State. Many students researching for courses wouldn't opt to overcome the learning curve of Second Life to utilize a Penn State Second Life library. A database is more accessible to the Penn State community because not only is it accessible from any technology connected to the internet but also because its faster and much more efficient to access. The benefits a virtual world would bring to a library system don't necessarily align with the needs of a reference research facility at the present.
Throughout history, all innovative technologies have challenged the traditional methods that they are attempting to replace, reconfigure or enhance. The innovators responsible for those technologies had to think far enough outside the box past what has been considered effective. Virtual worlds have the potential to reinvent the way we interpret information. For example, instead of reading a piece of fiction, imagine being immersed in that work that is interacts with you engaging your imagination and senses. Instead of traditionally reading Dr. Seuss' Cat and the Hat to a six year old, envision having them hop on Second Life, and virtually walk through the story while they read and learn.
We found it necessary that the Penn State Library not only digitize their resources, but their collections of print books, encyclopedias, journals, manuscripts, newspapers, documents dissertations, media (music, video, audio) and more. There are current databases online where a two dimensional approach is taken- meaning that the data online is in PDF format or plain text. The Penn State Library as a collective whole should start formatting its resources digitally. When this happens, the Penn State Library will have a diverse set of options. Regardless of how the Penn State Library decides to proceed, this is the first step to making its resources available to its users digitally and requires a significant financial investment. It is our recommendation that any capital they have to invest be invested in this effort. The return on this investment is that the information is immortalized- it can be updated at any time and will outlast its paper form.
Our group opinion is that the current library efforts in Second Life are that they aren't returning the investments put into them. While exploring InfoIsland, we talked to various librarians in all parts of the island, asking to see what information was typically stored there. The librarians had trouble locating actual data for our avatar. Furthermore, other than InfoIsland, our investigative efforts were unable to discover another large library presence on Second Life, with the exception of a few individual libraries (extended versions of their physical forms). Therefore, we do not recommend that Penn State invest in technology that has yet to be utilized to the specifications proposed.