Second Life and the future of Libraries

The College Center for Library Automation's LINCCWeb Strategic Planning Team and members of the CCLA Website Team are looking into new, novel and advanced ways to deliver LINCCWeb products and services. One of the vehicles we are exploring is Second Life (www.secondlife.com). Several of us have already established a presence on that service and we are amazed at the number of libraries and library services that are already there. For example, the Kansas State Library has a completely functional virtual library staffed by real librarians – all hosted in a virtual world. There are dozens more.

To get you excited about these possibilities, I offer this video presentation by the New Media Consortium (www.nmc.org). The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of more than 200 colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

This is amazing.