The Alphaville Herald

Turning the Pages at the SL Public Library

by Alphaville Herald on 16/01/05 at 1:44 pm

by Walker Spaight

Anyone who’s enjoyed the view lately from Eddie Escher’s striking Seacliff Tower has probably noticed the clean lines and purple windows of the building that sits just across the water to the south, in Gualala. A good-sized build whose heavy dark columns make the rest of the structure seem to float easily above the estuarial Gualala waters, closer inspection reveals the building to be the Second Life Public Library. Closer inspection still reveals there to be not a book in the place–at least, not yet.

I met library director Jade Lily–who herself has been in the news lately–on the building’s grounds on a quiet, sunny Saturday morning recently for a chat about her plans for the place. Like the building itself, her plans are formidable.

“My ultimate goal is [to build] a place where SL residents can go to research anything related to Second Life,” Jade says. “It will be a repository of resident-produced, SL-related articles. I’ll be emphasizing the culture and history part, because that’s what I believe to be the most important for residents to understand, and that’s the kind of information that is the most lacking in SL.”

Though Jade and her team–which includes treasurer Lily Lightcloud–already have some competition from the SL History Wiki and the SL Historical Society in Phobos, her approach appears to be far more comprehensive than any existing project, at least in its conception. Jade envisions the library eventually comprising thousands of articles on SL’s history and culture, as well as creative writing and tutorials, produced by organized teams of writers drawn from SL residents new and old.

It’s not a project Jade has taken on lightly. Conceiving and planning the library began almost from the moment Jade first became a volunteer SL mentor, in November of 2003. “The library is really just a reflection of my desire to bring understanding of SL to residents,” she says. Features like a coffee shop and open-air reading rooms are also a reflection of Jade’s desire to create “a social atmosphere for residents who prefer not to go to clubs.”

One of the reading areas at the SecondLife Public Library

Though the library has yet to begin producing articles, Jade says the institution will take an active role in acquiring content. A Requirements team will determine the content needs of the library, develop the category structure, and write assignments for the Production team, which will then recruit writers.

Writers in turn will be given a list of sources they’ll need to approach for information (thus opening the positions to newbies as well as SL veterans), and will be paid a fee for their work. A Collections team will also oversee contributions that are volunteered by residents, including resident-produced fiction and non-fiction, which will go through an editing process similar to assigned articles.

Visitors to the library will access its holdings through searchable and browsable terminals linked to a r/l database that will return a notecard visitors will be welcome to keep, free of charge. The system’s code is being written by Jade, Christopher Omega, and Robin Huber. Librarians will also be on hand eventually to help visitors navigate the system.

Hearing about such an ambitious project–one that stands on a 38,896 square meter plot–raises the obvious question: Who’s paying for all this stuff?

The financial requirements will obviously be substantial. Though the Lindens have expressed interest in seeing what will become of the library, Jade says, the project will have no direct Linden funding. Instead, a fund-raising committee has already begun its work. A Webcast radio show and raffle designed specially for the library by Robin Huber raised more than L$150,000 in three hours last October.

One SL resident has told the Herald that Philip Linden is interested in experimenting with telecommuting from within Second Life and has considered renting space at the library for the purpose, but Jade says no such arrangements have been made.

Most of the build is already finished. The original building was designed in early 2004 by Lordfly Digeridoo, though Jade herself has made many extensions and modifications on the plot, which was originally only 8 km square. Eddie Escher and Alan Edison have contributed textures to the build, Fallingwater Cellardoor created the library’s stately interior furniture, Water Rogers is working on furniture for the coffee shop, and Nephilaine Protagonist and Doops Lomax are creating furniture and electronics, respectively, for other areas of the building.

The SecondLife Public Library from the outside, as it stands today

The big question now is how hard it will be to fill the library with material that people will want to read. “Jumping into Second Life is like opening a novel to the middle and reading from that point forward, without any knowledge of the plot up to that point,” Jade says. “There is a lot that has happened, which has led us to where we are now. Changes in the technology and economy have brought down great builds and have shaped the way we do things around here, and how we interact with people. That’s what we hope to uncover.”

Just mastering the personnel involved will be a challenge. At least a dozen people have already contributed to the project, and an even greater number will probably be added to various committees in coming months. But Jade brings r/l skills to the task from her experience as a computer programmer on active duty with the US Air Force. “Process can be applied to anything,” she says.

As to how long the process will take, Jade gives the typical developer’s answer: “I don’t want to throw a date projection out.”

From the sound of things, it will be worth the wait.