Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library has been developing a Second Life presence. We have a storefront building in CybraryCity, so we formed a library committee to figure out what to do with it. This post explains what we’ve done so far.
Last night, we held our first event – an open house at the storefront. From my perspective, it was a success – we had about 50 attendees (two of which blogged about it)! We had a few things set up for the attendees to do. They could:
- sign our guestbook
- get a free t-shirt
- network with the other people/avatars who attended the event
- get an impromptu tour of our facility
- get some food (including chicken wings, sushi, and cake)
- get a free coffee mug with my library’s logo
- Join in on the rooftop dancing
And, of course, see what we’ve been up to. So far, we have focused on “original content,” including:
- a click-through display of artwork in our library’s art gallery
- exploring web links to info on Topeka and Kansas
- information about our library
Meeting and events are a HUGE thing at our RL library – so we have tables and chairs set up in our storefront “branch” to facilitate SL meetings.
And did I mention we’re “dance-party-capable?”
That’s what we’ve been doing with our storefront. If you’re interested, here’s a link to some “pictures” I took of the event, and here’s a video I made about the event.
Stay tuned for more as we continue to develop it!
secondlife
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Just for interest, do you have any idea how many of those attending were part of your first-life community, that is, from Topeka & Shawnee County? Does the guestbook provide a clue?
Yep – only five of us were from TSCPL. Everyone else was either from the second life library project and/or just decided to come.
Great grand opening! This library is a great example of how a virtual reality environment can be leveraged to extend library services to more patrons. [And I don't say this just because I'm a transplanted Kansan
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David, Thanks for the info.