Balancing both lives: issues facing librarians working in Second Life and real life worlds

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ongoing issues and concerns of Second Lifernlibrarians who are attempting to balance both their virtual library tasks and assignments along withrntheir real world library tasks and assignments.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Members of the Library and Information TechnologyrnAssociation and, in addition, members of the Second Life Librarians group are invited tornparticipate in an online survey during the summer of 2008. In addition to sharing issues and concernsrnof balancing their work lives in both virtual and real life worlds, survey participants suggest solutionsrnfor problem resolution.rnFindings - Data from 161 survey participants show that virtual world librarians are passionaternabout their commitments to virtual world libraries to the extent that most librarians completed virtualrnlibrary work at home and are not compensated by their libraries for this work. Issues and problemsrnshared by respondents include inadequate computers and slow internet connections at work, lack ofrnsupport by library administration, blocking of virtual world software by network technicians, andrnlittle response to requests for scheduled time for virtual world library tasks.rnResearch limitations/implications - The number of respondents is comparatively small. Thernauthors feel a larger percentage of members may have participated if the survey was conducted duringrneither fall or spring semesters of the academic calendar year. A second survey may be conducted inrnspring 2009 to compare findings and to track solutions and concerns.rnPractical implications - Librarians may have more time to devote to real life library work and willrnnot need to complete virtual world library tasks at home if they are provided adequate computers andrnInternet connections at work and are also scheduled for virtual library work.rnOriginality/value - This paper provides empirical data on the perceived allocations of virtualrnlibrary work time for virtual librarians and also discusses suggested solutions for better timernmanagement of virtual work.