Books And Libraries

So my ususal Monday trick of listening to Digital Human on BBC Radio 4 for blog inspiration failed this week because they were talking about Cyborgs, transhumanism and whether we are all subsconsciously becoming Cyborgs and try as I did, I couldn’t find an angle to get to Second Life from that material, a jolly good listen however.

So I decided, after urgings, to investigate e-books. This was a tale of woe, first of all I tried to get an e-book from Waterstones. However to read e-books on the PC I needed to download Adobe Digital Editions, this was a breeze and now I was cooking on gas, all I needed to do was remember my Adobe password and I could install my soon to be purchased e-book on different mediums, if I didn’t register, I’d only be able to read it on my PC. At this point things went tits up, I couldn’t remember my password. Aha, there’s a password reset request and sure enough, I was informed an email was on its way. Several hours later and I’m still waiting.

So instead I went to Amazon, installed their Kindle for PC reader, realised I’d forgotten my Amazon password… oh heck but this time a password reset request actually worked. The only annoying thing left was having to pay VAT on my e-book, in the UK we don’t pay VAT on physical books but an e-book is considered an electronic service, not a book, even though it is a book, I’ll save that rant for another day, although Remember Remember, the fifth of November is an ideal day for a rant about The Government! The real moral of this story is to remember your passwords.

Then I read a little and decided to quickly take a look at the Second Life storytelling scene and popped to the Seanchai Library.

Seanchai1

The Seanchai Library has an informative website, I won’t go into how Second Life Group pages in a web based format would be handy here, other than to agree that they would. Seanchai, the website tells us, is a way of telling stores in the Celtic tradition of sitting around a hearth, or in the pub. Actually Digital Human discussed how we are going back to some old ways of storytelling a couple of weeks ago, but I covered that already!

The stories are in voice unless otherwise stated. The location isn’t wow, like some libraries outside of Second Life, but it is effective and informative with a noticeboard informing a visitor of forthcoming events:

Seanchai3

As well as posters about upcoming events and coming this December we have Dickens!

Seanchai2

Now as this is largely a voice storytelling location, it won’t be suitable for all, however it’s worth keeping your eye on and looks like a project that should be positively encouraged.

Seanchai Library can be found at : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Imagination%20Island/47/211/28

Neighbouring the Seanchai public library is, The Rachelville community library, this looks largely aimed at a younger audience but has resources and Second Life’s very own version of the e-book in the shape and form of books on inworld notecards!

Rachelville1

Reading a book on a notecard is not ideal and it would be wonderful if we had a feature rich e-book reader within Second Life from which people could share books, or even buy and sell them, but we don’t, so it’s good to see that people don’t let minor issues like that trouble them and get on with sharing resources too.

Storytelling in Second Life is alive and well, it’s good to investigate such ventures, well if you have time of course!


6 Replies to “Books And Libraries”

  1. I love ebooks. I find all the deals too! If you do facebook there are several different groups where you can get emailed notices on your phone for FREE books of the day. Just fill out a little questionaire about your likes and dislikes and wha la. To mention 2 that I use #1 BookBub and #2 Freebooksy. I signed up for them from facebook but you can probably just type them in search and find them. And for the free ones? No VAT fee! *Jezebel Bailey winks*
    I do have the book club *Route 13* which I do read in every so often too, in SL. Reading is making a comeback with the E (type) Readers, and I for one am very happy about it!

    Jez

    1. I think I’ll need to get a kindle before falling in love with ebooks, that is the real reason why I wanted the full rights version of the e-book. I’ve read a bit on my PC but it’s not the same as reading a book, a Kindle may be easier on the eye.

      We should blog Route13 hey 😉

  2. Glad you made the trip to Seanchai. Good on you.

    It’s been a while since I had a slot there… calendar’s been packed.

    Folks dug the David Rakoff tribute I did, so I want to do a Frank Key/Hooting Yard hour there some day soon.

    (I get so sick of my own garbage, ja know?)

    -ls/cm

        1. No problem at all Bear, it’s nice to see places that engage with Storytelling, hopefully I’ll be there again soon.

Leave a Reply to Ciaran LavalCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: