Where Should We Go Next?

Flying through the David Rumsey map room at Stanford’s Library within Second Life was one of the more remarkable things I did this semester… not a particularly social experience, but a memorable one. I love this as a model to consider in the future for archives and special collections specifically, as community does not all need to be real-time, sometimes communities just need built around inspiring experiences that start an ongoing dialogue. The actual exhibit at Stanford (in the real world) is impressive, but doesn’t allow a researcher walk along the original Oregon Trail of the United States, or fly over Yosemite at scale. For institutions holding collections like this, a well-designed immersive can be both a compelling way to access information as well as a “place” where social interactions and communities can happen.

Visit: David Rumsey Maps · Yosemite exhibit region · teleport directly in-world

Second Life hosts the other model I’d point to for the future, specifically the Community Virtual Library, That virtual space is filling a completely different need: over the past two decades it has become a gathering space for librarians and patrons alike…built by the community it serves.

Visit: Community Virtual Library

I find Second Life an interesting environment for us to consider when considering future directions. The immersive nature of the technology (showcased by the Rumsey collection), the sense of “place” it creates (typified by the Community Virtual Library), and also a third observation, which is that people tend to create community wherever they go. Second Life is over 20 years ago, and is admittedly a platform in decline if we’re looking at user metrics like Active Daily Users. However people continue to find corners of the platform where they can gather and socialize, and self-organize into communities.

We see similar communications and congregations within newer, smaller community discussion groups like Reddit, Discord, and Bluesky (among others), and also on game platforms like Roblox, Animal Crossing, and World of Warcraft. These platforms are providing a real contrast to the experiences available on the social media platforms Facebook/Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, and Pinterest, which have become increasingly organized around algorithmic reach and advertising rather than sustained sense of place and presence, and this distinction is worth naming directly here when we consider the future.

My recommendation for virtual communities of the future is to design strategies understanding that not every part of a community’s (or library’s) virtual presence needs to do the same job. Some of it should be built for visibility and PR (using social media strategies), some for providing tech-enabled updates to existing services (like chat-based resource desk versus phone/in-person), and some to foster smaller, more connected communities (like Rumsey’s exhibit or the Community Virtual Library). That’s the next chapter to virtual communities that I hope libraries write: not focused on scale, per se, but building the kind of place that gives people a vibrant “third space” somewhere in cyberspace.