iLibris

Immersion, Virtual Worlds and Gaming

“…I don’t think anyone could have guessed how it would evolve, and how fast it would evolve, and into how much of our lives it would actually get into. Right now you have screens in your pocket, and it’s quite common to see kids playing on a handheld, or see any of us texting. We’re constantly pulled into that space…”

Robbie Cooper discussing virtual worlds for his Alter Ego exhibit

How Do Libraries us Games, Gaming, and Virtual Worlds?

It’s always been a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around the role of virtual worlds and a sort of traditional conception of the library. In general, I believe that are two routes that libraries can take 1) games, gaming, and virtual worlds as education and recreation and 2) utilizing the social media aspect of gaming and virtual worlds to provide services.

Regarding the former idea, of using games, gaming, and virtual worlds in education or for recreation – I (nearly) absolutely wholeheartedly support. At minimum, I think that public and school libraries need to recognize games and virtual worlds as a legitimate medium for problem solving, learning, and recreation. Games and gaming platforms should be made available at public libraries, and should be maintained as a service. Games can range anywhere from a kind of online transmedia storytelling, to MMORGs, to simple two player arcade-style gaming consoles, and they can even be arranged into genres. A youth services librarian should be aware of all the different sorts of games and gaming platforms that are available, and what the appropriate age level should be for users. All that being said, I don’t support all games, and even though I am suspicious of most popular arguments that blame video games for violence among youth, I do think that games that have a certain level of violence should be reserved for those who are young adults or older. When I was at the San Diego Comic Con in July, I attended a panel titled Graphic Novels for Non-Teenagers, where the panelists discussed the benefits of having a graphic novel and comics sections for youth and adults. I look forward to the day when libraries not only  support and circulate games for youth, but also maintain a collection for adults, since many of us now have grown up with video games.

The later concept, utilizing the social media aspect of virtual worlds to provide services, is a bit more difficult for me to wrap my head around. I, of course, understand using social media to promote services, to reach out to various communities of users, and engage in dialogue with them. However, I question the effectiveness of providing links to a library catalogue or databases through Facebook, or providing services through a virtual world like Second Life. It’s actually much easier for me to wrap my head around the affordance of augmented reality tools like QR codes, to provide either a game-like experience, or simply to improve mobile access to library services, but to provide library or academic service in a virtual world? I don’t know…

After reading Rebecca C. Hedreen et al article Exploring virtual librarianship: Second Life Library 2.0, it seems that Second Life can offer various affordances for library services that are similar to real life services with some added creativity and imagination. On of the authors conclude with a consideration of the role of virtual libraries:

“Through Second Life we can begin to explore the meaning of a ‘virtual  library,’ one that does not have a physical equivalent, and, to some extent,the meaning of ‘library’ in general. Are we really about access, in which case a library with no more access than the Web becomes redundant? Are we still all about locating and searching, in direct competition with search engines? Or is there some combination, plus the personal interaction, which makes a virtual world so fascinating, that really makes up a virtual librarian in a virtual library.” ( Hedreen et al 192).

I do think that many librarians are struggling with what their roles are and what part their institutions play in todays information and media saturated world (see R. David Lankes talk on “The Future of Librarianship” or Aaron Tay’s blog post “8 Articles about the future of libraries that made me think”) and the Hedreen article touches on this anxiety around the future of the profession. I can certainly see the appeal or desire to have a library presence in highly populated virtual worlds, or to provides services to patrons who prefer communication through a virtual medium. But I have to agree with Lankes when he encourages librarians to ask whether or not these services are fulfilling “the mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities”.

What Is The Role of Immersion in Learning?

After poking around again, I came across this 2009 article by Diane Carr and Martin Oliver titled Second Life, Immersion and Learning. This team of researchers spent a year investigating teaching and learning in Second Life. In this particular article, the authors call into question some of the underlying assumptions behind the use of the term “immersion” in education communities and that “it would be problematic to assume that ‘more immersed’ is ‘better’ for learning or teaching, especially if such an approach is not sensitive to the students’ expectations, contexts, and interpretive frameworks…We have no wish to underestimate, demonise or dismiss the pleasures of immersion, but we would query the pervasive and often uncritical use of this term within the Second Life and education communities”. The authors overall argument is best summarized here:

“When theorising virtual world pedagogy it is important to appreciate that various forms of participation, attention and affect may be part of the learner experience. Education in Second Life involves multiple frames of reference – personal, social and technical – each of which may have implications for learning. To further our understanding of the pedagogic potentials of Second Life, we need to be clear about which of these frames we draw on when making particular claims, and be specific about the concepts that we employ in our research.”

I do think that these authors would probably agree with me when I say that immersion, as an aspect of learning or facilitating knowledge creation, still has a great deal of potential. As game designer Jane MacGonigal argues Gaming can make a better world and as Asi Burak of Games for Change notes some games are already making a difference. Immersion, virtual worlds, and gaming can offer a great deal of potential if used well and used strategically, either as a highly populated medium with which to engage with users, and provide a more user oriented service, or as medium for learning and civic engagement. It’s understandable that traditional library institutions are struggling with their role in todays world, but to choose to avoid certain forms of popular media and technologies based on unquestioned assumptions that such forms are low brow, will only strengthen the (ridiculous and falsely dichotomous) rhetoric that libraries are technologically outdated.