Elfreda A. Chatman Research Proposal Award Presentation by Lorri Mon, Florida State Universty

1. Questions and Answers in a Virtual World :
Educators and Librarians as Information
Providers in Second Life
Dr. Lorri Mon, Florida State University
SIG-USE Elfreda A. Chatman
Research Proposal Award, 2007

2. Active Worlds There.com
http://www.activeworlds.com http://www.there.com
Getty Art Museum in Whyville
Whyville http://www.whyville.net Habbo Hotel http://habbo.com
* The Blue Book: A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds

3. IBM SUN
MICRO-
SYSTEMS
DELL
DELL
Second Life
CDC http://www.secondlife.com SONY BMG
Launched in 2003; 10 million+ registered (6 million
unique registered users) free basic accounts in 2006;
audio in 2007; over 80 universities, many libraries; 390
square miles of virtual land (6 times the size of D.C.)

4. Research Questions
• How does embodiment as an avatar within a virtual world
impact the information-seeking interaction between information
service providers and information seekers?
• Are there aspects to virtual worlds self-presentation by
information seekers or information service providers that inhibit
or are detrimental to the success of an information interaction?
• Are there aspects to virtual worlds self-presentation by
information seekers or information service providers that
enhance or facilitate the success of an information interaction?
Method
Interviews, observations and screenshots are used in examining the
self-presentations, working environments & information objects
used by virtual world information providers; analysis is framed by
Erving Goffman’s work on self-presentation & information control.

5. LIS 5916 Class, Sept. 19, 2007

6. The Working Environment:
Information Architectures
Princeton U. UNC-CH FSU
MYTHICA DREXEL

7. The Working Environment:
Alexandrine Libraries
The Library
of
Alexandria
Hobbit Shire Library 1800’s Dirigible Library

8. The Information Providers’ Role:
Issues
of Presentation of the Self
Trust:
"are you
really a
librarian?”
n00bs a “conservative” or “professional” appearance
vs. [“my alt has blue hair”]
residents
"...from
brand
newbie to
well-
dressed..."

9. Avatar and Self Identity
“I wanted it to look like myself”
“all my avatars look like me or express the real
me in some way ...”
"I feel weird coming inworld as my alt ... it is like
pretending! i feel like this is really me."
"I am not comfortable with the idea of creating a
male alt and pretending it is me although I have
a male friend who uses a female alt at the ref
desk because she is more "approachable.”

10. “the majority of Questions are about SL”
“a lot of How to's... and Where do I start's”
How to (examples): Where to (examples):
• earn money in SL? • go to learn skills
• learn to build or script? • find interesting sims
• dance / stop dancing • find educational places
• join a non-profit • find specific places, e.g.
• clothes / hair – is there a sim here for....
• communicating – where is …
Specialists (law & health/medical
librarians) reported more RL questions
than generalists (reference librarians,
educators)
• divorce
• disability
• diseases and prognoses

11. Answers, Information Tools & Objects
Worn by info providers: In the environment
• radar hud • Whiteboard (ppts)
• Babbler • Thinc book BOOK
• costumes • Objects w/info
Given out: • calendars
• notecards LINKS • teleport map
• landmarks • time zone map
• textures • video
• objects VIDEO • podcast/radio SCRIPT
TEXT CHAT PODCAST TEXTURE/IMAGE NOTECARD

12. Asynchronous Answers:
Games and Chatbots
Notre Dame _blacklibrary

13. Immersive and Interactive
Sistine Chapel - Vassar NOAA Weather Demo Reuters News
NOAA Hurricane Sim Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Roma – Classical Rome

14. Experiential Learning Spaces
Inset: Clickable
Latin graffiti
Roma: Notecard gives the history of Trajan’s Column in
ancient Rome

15. Virtual World Information Spaces
“there's still a personal space issue…”

16. Wish List for Info Providers
• more prims per parcel
• to be able to do real html ... create and display
interactive html pages in world
• ability to create or at least easily display external
databases to store info
• being able to drag from my desktop directly into SL
-- like WORD documents.
• to be able to search my inventory by creator of item
• to be able to query the system for where all the
things I've made are
• to be able to query objects for their scripts
• to be able to track when people copy and pass
around an info-object that I made

17. Princeton U. American Cancer Society UIUC - LIS
Examples of universities, libraries and
nonprofit organizations in Second Life
Questions?
U. of North Carolina-CH - LIS Clearwater Public Library, FL
Glenview Public Library San Jose State U- LIS Shawnee-Topeka PL

18. To contact me:
Email: lmon@ci.fsu.edu or SL: Lorri Momiji
Mon, L. (2009). “Questions and Answers in a Virtual World :
Educators and Librarians as Information Providers in Second Life.”
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Volume 2, Number 1 (April 2009).
http://www.jvwresearch.org/v2n1_Mon.html