Rochelle at Tinfoil + Raccoon‘s written about her recent visit to the Second Life world. Looks like she was there when I was!
She raises a lot of issues about the whole experience of SL for a newbie and the idea of having a library in the SL world, and the post has generated some almost heated comments.
I hadn’t thought much about it before, but there are so many parallels between visiting a virtual world for the first time and visiting a library as someone who is completely unfamiliar with the “interface” and unsure what one can expect. Rochelle: “For me, my first visit to SL was too much like a visit to a real library might be for most users–too hard to use.”
All the questions of relevance to users are replicated in SL, too, as they are in RL. I think that all libraries are currently facing the question of relevance – how do we stay relevant to our users, and more importantly, how do we stay relevant? I was thinking about this after reading Rochelle’s post, and then I read David Weinberger’s blog and his comment on librarianship as a viable profession for the future:
“…there will be a big demand for people who can help us find, understand and reuse information (or, as I like to think of it, create an infrastructure of meaning). We’re going to need lots of help thinking through systems that will enable multiple orders to emerge from the behaviors of distributed groups. Something like that.”
(I’m glad that some people have such positive views of my profession!)
After reading David Weinberger, I then pondered Meredith’s post on how difficult it is for students (and not just students, I suspect!) to verify the validity and veracity of information they find online. Yesterday I had the case of the student whose references for his/her PhD candidacy were almost 100% from Wikipedia. Obviously we’re not reaching everyone we should be reaching…
What role can RL libraries play for our users in the 21st century? I don’t think there’s any other profession that is better placed to play this information navigator/broker role but we need to make sure we’re keeping up with all the changes in the online world. And not just keeping up – how do we lead and push things in the directions we want them to go?
Hmm… I didn’t mean for this post to turn into a running commentary on What CW’s Been Reading in the Blogosphere. (Or should that be CW’s Messy Mind.)
*”in a mess”
7 Comments
Hmm, heated does not even begin to describe the comments over there at Rochelle’s. If that is how the SL veterans treat any newcomer for asking a couple basic questions, I am definitely staying as far away as I can. She raised common questions a few of us would likely raise, and it turns into flaming? Forget that. Best, and keep on blogging.
Angel, I was quite surprised at the vehemence too. I didn’t think Rochelle was rude about it, and as you say, raised a lot of valid issues. I wonder, if it had been a RL interaction, whether his/her comments could have come across as less defensive/aggressive…
Hi CW,
I caught an ad last night in which a tiger is walking through a library full of old books, and saying that he can’t find anyone to help him (yes, partly because he’s a tiger!), so he’s going with Optus Broadband. The ad suggests that when you have the Internet, you don’t need RL libraries. Your comments reminded me of the ad, and how people are lead to believe that if you have the net, you’ll find the information you need independent of a librarian.
Dee, this is a common belief. In some cases it might be true, but not in all cases (eg in academic settings). This is something much discussed in librarian circles, and could take many many blog posts 🙂
I can’t think of anything I disagree with more (the premise that with the introduction of the www, we wouldn’t need libraires as much)… it’s as you say cw – we need to be able to access information (in it’s right context etc) that we can trust!
We also need to be able to access information that is RELEVANT to the situation at hand. Accessing something from an American source can be extremely confusing, as I’m not American, nor does that information pertain to my Australian circumstances.
It seems to me that we have a lot of individuals out there who have quick access to a virtual world of information, over an uncountable array of subjects. You can never soak it ALL in – nor apply it all in context, if you haven’t taken the time out to understand the reasons and orgin for such information in the first place.
We’re building a world of experts who have no expertise in anything more then electronic information, and how to come across it quickly – as opposed to how to come accross it CORRECTLY.
This – I have to admit – worries me… take my ‘world’ for example… people can Google the word Bardi, and come up with all sorts of information attached ot such a word. But doing so, and reading such on the www, doesn’t tell you a thing about the depth and nuances associated with such a word, not from my (or I suspect – many of my mob’s) perspecitve. That’s information that requires a good information source at first, and a ‘facilitator’ of that information.
This is how I view a Librarian (with the brief flashes of Terry Pratchett’s charracter in the University of Magic – Oook!), and I can’t in anyway see the www being effective at this, as it’s too open to other peoples (those that drive it) interpretation.
Just my thoughts on the matter CW… took longer then I thought.
My apologies ofr rambling mate… cheers 😉
Regarding the Optus ad. I am sure that any librarian would be eager to help a 300 kg carnivorous predator if it walked into a library asking for information.
Thanks for your vote of confidence in librarians, Belongum 🙂 Us librarians will only have ourselves to blame if we don’t manage to get this message (that the WWW is not exactly the same as a library, given its lack of organisation) across to the bosses (or the people with the money). Many of my colleagues (myself included) are realising that the ‘traditional’ role of the librarian, as the gatekeepers of the knowledge, is not all there is to our profession.. and we’re trying to work out (for ourselves as much as for library users) what this role will be in the coming century. These are interesting times!
Welcome, Target on My Back! I see from your blog that you’re a Warhammer fan (or are you just a fan of the models?)!