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The Reference Librarian

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On Being a Virtual World Librarian: Experiences in Offering Live Reference

Services in a Virtual World
Samantha Thompson Column Editor a
a
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Online Publication Date: 01 April 2009

To cite this Article Thompson Column Editor, Samantha(2009)'On Being a Virtual World Librarian: Experiences in Offering Live

Reference Services in a Virtual World',The Reference Librarian,50:2,219 223

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The Reference Librarian, 50:219223, 2009

Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0276-3877 print/1541-1117 online
DOI: 10.1080/02763870902755999

1541-1117
0276-3877
WREF
The
Reference Librarian,
Librarian Vol. 50, No. 2, February 2009: pp. 17

VIRTUAL LIBRARIES, REAL PATRONS: LOOKING

AT LIBRARY SERVICE IN A VIRTUAL WORLD
On Being a Virtual World Librarian: Experiences
in Offering Live Reference Services in a Virtual World

Downloaded By: [Thompson, Samantha] At: 21:20 1 April 2009

Being
S.
Thompson
a Virtual World Librarian

SAMANTHA THOMPSON, Column Editor

New York Public Library, New York, NY

DISCLOSURE
My name is Samantha Thompson, but sometimes Im also Hypatia Dejavu;
this isnt a matter of having a hidden identity in some part of my life, its just
a normal part of being a user of the virtual world called Second Life. In my
day-to-day life, Im a senior librarian at the New York Public Library, but
many nights I put on my virtual identity and a trim virtual outfit to work as
the Reference Coordinator for the Alliance Virtual Library.

WHERE
It may be a worthwhile to briefly pause and discuss what makes a virtual
world such as Second Life different from the more heavily used virtual
worlds, such as World of Warcraft or Eve. Then, with these differences in
mind, we can more readily discuss the role of library reference services in
some specific forms of virtual worlds.
A virtual world is a persistent online environment that allows users to
interact with one another and an artificial world through an agent in that
world. This agent is referred to as a character, toon, or avatar (the latter is
used in Second Life). The online part allows users with Internet access to
logon to the virtual world from any location while the persistent part means

Address correspondence to Samantha Thompson, Senior Librarian, New York Public

Library, 469 W. 141st St., New York, NY 10031. E-mail: samantha.h.thompson@gmail.com
219

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S. Thompson

that the world continues to exist as a single instance whether a specific individual is logged on to the system.
The vast majority of virtual worlds are used for multiplayer online roleplaying games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, or Eve Online. This
isnt a surprise because a virtual world is a wonderful tool to use in building
games that allow for player interaction. In fact, the first real applications of
virtual worlds being used in any number were in text-based virtual games
known as multi-user dungeons.
The question of gameplay is how Second Life and its competitors
(There, Home, and Sims Online) vary from the majority of virtual worlds.
Worlds like Second Life use the metaphors common to game-based virtual
worlds but strip away the game element. This is to say that these virtual
worlds present a persistent virtual world that users interact with using a
graphical client and a representative avatar but there are no game-based
conflicts or advancements available.
In a certain sense, Second Life and its competitors are a hybrid
between the growing field of online gaming and the well-established world
of online chatrooms. Such a combination allows users from all over the
world the ability to interact and communicate with each other, regardless of
the barriers of distance, without knowing each other in advance. In this part
of its presentation, a virtual world like Second Life becomes far more like a
place than a service in the perception of some users.
The places within the virtual world of Second Life are user defined. To
a large extent, users can create the specific experience they are looking for, be
it a mall, town square, dance club, beachfront home, or a library. Currently,
the largest library project in Second Life is the Info Island Archipelago, a
group of 43 allied and connected virtual regions working to provide information and library services within the context of the virtual world.
At the hub of this growing service is the reference desk and welcome
area, where an incoming patron can find a live presence waiting to say
Hello, how can we help you today?

WHO
When hearing about the virtual reference service we offer, librarians have two
common questions: Who are your patrons? and Who are your volunteers?
The Alliance Virtual Library reference desk serves the general population of
that virtual world in the same way that a public library provides services to its
local area. According to the demographic statistics provided by Linden Labs
(the company which runs Second Life), the population we serve is large and
composed of 499,896 users logged on within a 7-day period (Linden Labs
2008). Of these users, 59.57% were male and 40.43% female (Linden Labs 2008).
The majority of users are from the United States (40.13%), with significant

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Being a Virtual World Librarian

221

minorities coming from Germany (9.99%), the United Kingdom (6.82%), and
Japan (6.09%); the remainder are from a variety of other developed countries
with less than 5% of the population each (Linden Labs 2008).
Thus, this population is different from the average population served
by a public library in its age range. According to the Linden Labs Terms of
service agreement, all users of its main system must be older than 18 years
of age. The adult population is as follows: 1824 (15.53%), 2534 (34.77%),
3544 (28.28%), and 45+ (20.37%) (Linden Labs 2008). This shows a distinctly
older population than is stereotypically expected of users of a computer system.
What this means is that the population served by the Alliance Virtual
Librarys reference desk is more diverse than one would expect to see outside
of a university with an international population. In fact, its population
demographics as a whole may be similar to the university environment due
to the particularities of the populations age demographic.
In theory at least, this is the population served by the Alliance Virtual
Library and its virtual reference service. The reference volunteers have not
been subjected to a demographic study to determine their statistical
makeup. However, experience with them has resulted in being able to
make some broad generalizations.
As of September 2008, there are 36 recognized reference volunteers; of
these volunteers, 26 present as female and another 10 present as male
(Thompson, 2008). In the case of gender, we are including only presentation
for the listing of gender because a user may present as the opposite sex and
this author has no wish to attempt to tease apart the question of gender
identity versus biological gender.
Professional librarians with a Masters of Library Science (or equivalent
from countries other than the United States) comprise the majority of the
volunteer staff of diverse qualifications and background. The majority of the
professional librarians work as academic librarians, with public and special
librarians having a small presence.

HOW
Most reference librarians are familiar with traditional reference interactions
with patrons and have at least a passing familiarity with online reference
formats as provided using e-mail or Internet chat clients. With this knowledge in mind, one might assume that a reference session in a virtual world
would be like other online reference situations; however, this would be an
incorrect assumption.
In a typical virtual reference interaction, people arrive at the library
location and are greeted by a well-dressed librarian who lets them know
that should they have any questions the librarian is there to answer them.
Assuming that the person has questions, the librarian does her best to

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S. Thompson

answer them based on personal knowledge, ready reference materials, and

free resources that are available on the Internet.
One deficiency of the type of ready reference outline above is in the
resources available. Our virtual librarian volunteers do not use proprietary
database sources because the Alliance Virtual Library does not presently
have subscriptions to any. At this point, we are still a largely volunteer organization and lack the funding for subscription databases. Although many of
our volunteer librarians do have access to those though their employers, we
ask them not to employ them in their work with the Alliance Virtual Library
to protect the digital property rights of the database providers.
On the other hand, several advantages to this form of interaction have
been observed within the reference interviews. Any librarian who has
worked in an online environment is familiar with the tendency to treat
librarians working online as machines. Which is to say, patrons logon, have
single questions that they expect instant answers to, and logoff the system
immediately after they have their answer. Although this has the virtue of
brevity, that sort of interaction tends to place a high burden on the librarian
and makes it largely impossible to perform a reference interview.
In a virtual world reference interview, the pace is somewhat slower
because of the client used and the patrons perceptions. Instead of writing to
a text name, the patron interacts with a graphical avatar that appears as a reasonably realistic person. This difference in presentation seems to cause the
patron to treat the librarian more like a person and less like an automated service. Enabling this social interaction also puts the librarians in a position
where they can ask clarifying questions that improve the patrons final results.

WHY
The average week at the virtual reference desk sees approximately 200 patrons
with 125 questions. Providing the reference service takes 36 volunteers and 74
hours a week of desk time (Thompson, 2008). Roughly, that means we see 3
patrons an hour and answer a question and a half in that time. Traffic varies, so
actual shifts may be busy or completely empty of patrons. This begs the obvious
question of Why bother? After all, this organization is operating without funding or meaningful institutional support and the statistics look like a slow week at
a sleepy rural library. Its a fair question to ask and a useful one to discuss.
The most obvious reason to continue is that there is a community present
in the virtual world that does seek library resources (including reference) in
that context. The presence of library patrons is a good reason to provide
library services in and of itself. It has also been noted that our statistics have
slowly and steadily grown over the time we have provided this service
within Second Life, meaning that the virtual public is discovering the reference
service and wishes to make use of that service.

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Furthermore, there is strong evidence that the statistics reported for the
desk are inaccurate because only 16 of 36 volunteers make regular reports of
their statistics. This low reporting is expected because the staff is mostly composed of volunteers staffing the desk on their own personal time. Because
low reporting is a continuing issue at traditional libraries with paid professional staff, it is only to be expected to be a problem in the virtual situation.
There are also a set of more compelling reasons to pursue virtual reference
work than just the measurable statistics. The greatest among these is the fact
that librarians and other volunteers are being provided with an opportunity
to meet their peers from across the country and the world, thus expanding
their network of professional contacts. One should never overlook the
advantages of learning from other librarians, especially if one does not have to
travel to a library conference (with attendant time and cost barriers) to do so.
As an added benefit, librarians and other volunteers are being offered a
chance to practice their reference and service skills in a context that does
not generally impact their day-to-day lives. In doing so, they have the
opportunity to improve their skills and try out new things without facing a
risk in their professional lives. Such an opportunity to experiment allows for
personal development while defusing some of the stress associated with trying
new things at ones normal place of work.
Thus, the answer to the Why? question is composed of many elements.
The statistics are not as grim as they might appear on paper and, above and
beyond the mere statistics, volunteers have a chance to better themselves in
ways which would not normally be open to them. On balance, these benefits
seem to make providing virtual reference worthwhile to both volunteers
and patrons.

IN CONCLUSION
The field of virtual world reference is a new and developing one. In our
first 2 years, we have seen many developments and interesting issues. Some
of these discoveries are isolated to virtual worlds (or even just Second Life),
whereas others have a broader application. As this series of columns continues,
we will be looking more deeply into those issues.

REFERENCES
Linden Labs. 2008. Economic statistics: Key metrics. Second Life. http://secondlife.com/
whatis/economy_stats.php (accessed September 15, 2008).
Thompson, Samantha. 2008. SLLVR statistics. Alliance virtual library. http://spreadsheets.
google.com/ccc?key=pyxcNekDm-Fjt8e2KFlXfMA&hl=en (accessed September
20, 2008).