Library with real-world books.

I'm currently constructing a prototype library on my land in Abitibi. This would differ from other libraries in-game in that it would contain real-world books (taken from project Gutenberg mainly) instead of SL tutorials and whatnot. I'd also like to get works in there that are written by SL residents, either about 1st life or 2nd life happenings.
In addition to real books and couches/tables for sitting and reading, I have an upstairs level that could be used to host "like-minded" events - poetry readings, story telling, discussions, that sort of thing.
What are everyone's opinions on this? Good idea? Bad idea? Suggestions? If you would like to see what I am building, (and also the little nature area I have there now), IM me in game.


Oh, and please don't post here with "blah blah...no one's going to want to sit and stare at a notecard when they could read a real book", because that's an obvious issue...and I do it all the time.

Real Life Books?

I may not understand properly what you mean by real life books, but couldn't there be copyright problems with that, I mean, unless you actually buy electronic versions of the books for redistribution. I am not sure though.

Jess

Check out Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org . The books I would be using are no longer under copyright.

I think this is a great idea, good luck with it!

In that case I think it's a great idea!

This is a excellent idea... i'll copy and paste some Project G works if you have a book donation box set up.

heh... can i donate this set of encyclopedias from 1973?

Nogard: You may donate those encyclopedias directly to my living room...I have an empty bookcase waiting for them =D
Speaking of which, why won't Linden let us view web pages in SL? Imagine, a bookcase that queries the wikipedia based on your search!

And any bookbinding in-game from anyone would be a HUGE help.

We are also doing this at Perilous Pleasures, and have been for some time. Although we only have material that we have been given permission to put up, old classics who's copyright has long since went by the wayside (Story of O will be the first), or transcripts from our in-house discussions and classes. Of course ours are very themed. I know that at one time Neil Protagonist (I think) had several classic books in the White Star casino.

I'd love to see more actual classic novels and reference material in libraries throughout SL, as well as works written by SL residents. Just getting the residents to contribute is usually the hard part though.

Did they ever put a section for resident fiction and poetry in the library that Jade Lily was working on?

I think it's a super idea.

Are you planning to have a script to help chop the Gutenberg books into pieces that will fit into notecards? I could help with the bookbinding process, I think.

Would it be possible to have a "librarian" robot which could help find a book based on a search string?

How about a librarian robot which could give advice about a book to read, based on a couple of questions? Someone would need to categorize the books and think of good distinguishing questions. I'd like to be involved in a project like that.

neko

David: I can't seem to find your club in-game. Yes, Neil had a few books for sale that I came across a while ago, which inspired me to become a SL bookbinder. Afaik however, there have been no full-fledged libraries.

Nekokami: Right now all the books are bound by hand, and everything's small enough so a search bot isn't necessary. If this became popular and grew, I could definitely see such a robot in use.

This kind of thing has been done several times. I had a smallish library back in beta and I know I wasnt the first one either.
The best way to do it would be to have a generic interface that would download small bits of text one at a time.
"Binding" books by hand is crazy.
And then there's always the "Why the heck dont you just do it OUTSIDE SL" factor... oh, and also the fact that we will probably be able to use a website as a texture in the future.

Real-world libraries have certain exemptions from copyright law in order to be permitted to copy, preserve and archive material that they own. If residents of Second Life kept a repository of actual books or receipts for e-books somewhere, in theory they may also be able to put copyrighted material in a virtual library. It might be prudent to script the borrowing procedure to prevent more copies of an item being "borrowed" than the library actually possesses physical copies of. Either way it would be pushing copyright law into new directions, and would be both an interesting social and legal experiment.

Do Virtual Libraries also have exemptions from copyright, if they show due diligence in borrowing procedures?

I don't see how they could. The assumption is that with RL libraries, nobody is going to photocopy an entire book they have checked out, but with ebooks, how hard is it to copy and paste the whole thing? I suppose you could make each page a texture, but think of the time and $L you'd have to put into that.

Excellent idea, I've thought of doing that myself.

One limitation might be prims, though; 1500 books is 1500 prims at least (more if you want them to look good).

I have a small library of books in Grignano in my house that are free to read. They are also taken from the Gutenberg project. Neil Protagonist made them.

You could also sort-of mirror text that is under the GFDL - for example Wikipedia. You'd need to distribute a copy of the license with it and explain where it came from. As a former Wikipedian I can talk you though it if you are interested.

We just do it very simply, by using notecard givers, and embedding notecards within notecards to sperate chapters and fit it all in one initial introductory notecard. It's not fancy, but effective.

Omega! So that's what you have been doing!

Hadn't talked in awhile, but when you have a break come visit the WA, that's where I'll be...because I can't go anywhere else

Purgatory<sp?>...sigh...

Yabune, 180, 30. No fancy interfaces, we just use notecard giver scripts, but check it out.

Arbel! Mew.

As for the prim limit...1500 books would be insane, and insanely great. What I'm envisioning now is to use up what prims I have for books, then either A. Continue adding books as notecards only or B. If I'm that big, perhaps I'll have the resources to purchase more land as a prim farm.

A great idea! And a step closer to making SL a resource/utility for RL.
At the risk of blue skying a bit too much, I was wondering how the unique capabilities SL gives us can augment the reader's experience.

Would it be possible for scripters and builders to add to the experience of these books?

Consider that some popular works would have illustrations included. Could builders create 3d illustrations from key scenes of these books and scripter's to simply rez these scenes temporarily when a certain page is reached? Then moving to a new section could new illustrations come up?

Could rough hyperlinks be added to crossreference between books that share or compare information?

Could music be added at key chapters?

Could educational / technical books be illustrated with working / animated illustrations? For instance, if a resident wanted to make a simple how to of how hybrid engines function, could a temp on rez engine system appear, be examined, be exploded (the parts of the engine expanded for examination), be witnessed in action?

Could maps in history books work with our prim and scripts to illustrate political / military histories over time?

Just some ideas. Good luck with the library. I look forward to it and may be able to help (if school lets me).

Those are some pretty neat ideas, Hamstershire! My friend and neighbor in-game has been brainstorming a way to create large, readable, illustrated books that you "sit" on and the camera points at them. To all other it'd look like someone sitting and reading a book.

Why not use a vender station to pass out books then? You could have one for each author, or style of book, or whatever. Set the price to 0, and you should be good.

I'm no script-goddess, but I would think you could either tell the vender to pass out notecards, or prim books or whatever you wantedto. This would save on prim space emensely (sp?) and you could pretty much add as many books as you felt the time or need to add.

Nala that could also be an option, as I've scripted a vendor system that does exactly that for real estate - hands out notecards

With the old Erogenous Zone magazine, we had a viewer that showed title pages for the stories, with pictures, and then a had a read article button that you could click to get notecards with embedded pics interspersed throught the text as illustrations. You would simply flip thru the title pages, like a vendor, and choose which articles/stories you wished to read. Of course the viewer was large (more like a flat vendor for wall-mounting) so that folks could see the title pages and ads clearer, so it looked nothing like a book, but took advantage of the 3D environment.

Taggy did the scripting for them and they worked well for our needs (magazine with lots of graphics).

OmegaX, I like the notion of bringing classic literature into SL. Unfortunately with notecards lacking any advanced typographical options, things look bland, but that doesn't mean you can't forge ahead.

Neil Protagonist's books are back up! Find them at the WhiteStar Archeplex:

Chartreuse (74, 26)


If you need kick-ass book textures that smell of leather and have a real gritty look to them, contact Thili Playfair. She'll give you more info.




My dearest Jadey will indeed have a section for this as she works with the SL Public Library team to coordinate classifications. It's important to the history of the world that these Resident contributions be included as part of the overall creative communal aspect of SL.