Consortial collaborative virtual reference in Second Life

Consortial Reference Services in the virtual world of Second Life

The Alliance Virtual Library, the innovator in reference services is pleased to invite you and your organization to partner with us in the development of a network to offer collaborative virtual reference services. Many of the libraries in Second Life are located in the Info Island Archipelago group of islands, but many are not. The propsed partnership of all libraries to offer high qualtiy reference services to patrons will strengthen all the libraries in SL.

Reference was one of the first services started by the Alliance Virtual Library in SL, just over two years ago. It was a small, somewhat ad hoc service with four regular volunteers, covering about six hours of time a week. The vision was, and continues to be, to provide a generalist reference desk that could serve patrons arriving 24/7. By the end of 2006 we’ve grown to cover 80 hours a week, with around 38 regular volunteers, each covering a two hour shift. We help in the neighborhood of 300 patrons a week at present. The volunteers vary from MLS librarians to allied professions to paraprofessionals to friends of the library (i.e. classic library volunteer).

Our service has succeeded for a number of reasons. The foremost is presence. The presence of a live reference service person surprises and delights people and they do keep coming back. The success of our service depends entirely on our volunteers. They aren’t employees; they are people working for their love of libraries.

More and more libraries are working to establish a presence in SL, and reference will be the flagship service they will want to offer. The success of a new venture might very well depend on that key element; a live presence to assist the patrons. Also, many individuals seeking to obtain permission and funding to begin a library in SL are often met with roadblocks having to do with this same service issue.

There are two ways that a library may participate in the consortial program. Consortial virtual reference partners pledge time (ideally a two hour weekly shift) or other support to help expand the centralized reference services at Info International. In exchange the Alliance Virtual Library will offer your patrons a direct link to our services via intersim teleporters, landmarks, and notecards to be placed in your library in a reference kiosk (a five prim free-standing object with a .3mx.3m footprint). This object will direct patrons to the reference desk. Partners will receive full access to our reference statistics as well as having the ability to promote their library and its events through our central location.

We realize that some libraries are not able to commit time or resources to the reference project at this time but would still like to participate in the program. Consortial reference affiliates may have a reference kiosk installed at their location with no requirement of a commitment. We are willing to do this because we believe in supporting all libraries regardless of the resources that they have available to commit.

We believe the goal of collaborative virtual reference to expand the live library services may be one of the most important things we will do. Please contact Hypatia Dejavu, Alliance Reference Coordinator, hypatia.dejavu@gmail.com to discuss this concept at length. We are eager to begin our partnership with you.