Pictured above: The interior of the Library of Birmingham as
seen in Second Life
The Virtual Library of Birmingham, built by Daden Limited
(Daden), has opened its doors to the public allowing access two
years before the real life building is ready for occupancy. The
Virtual Library of Birmingham allows visitors to explore and learn
more about the public spaces within the new library as well as
leave their comments.
Birmingham City Council contracted Daden to deliver an
interactive virtual model of the new library in Second Life. The
purpose of the REIP (Regional Efficiency and Improvement
Partnerships) funded projects was to support community engagement,
and to inform the internal fit-out.
Daden used the architect's images, plans and drawing to build
the Virtual Library of Birmingham in situ on Centenary Square in
Second Life. Working with the Library of Birmingham team, Daden
also created a warehouse of furniture and objects. They trained the
Library of Birmingham team in the skills necessary to make changes
and to also furnish the Virtual Library, as and when more detail
was known regarding the internal spaces.
"We felt it was important to allow the team to own the building
and to be able to make the changes to the floor space and
experiment with the internal fit-out rather than be reliant on
Daden - and it's worked well," says Daden's Managing Director David
Burden. "Every time we visit the library we notice they have made
changes or added more detail."
Daden have also provided the Library of Birmingham an array of
tools to enable visitors to explore the library in different ways
and to capture comments.
"You can choose to explore by yourself, take a flying book tour
or let a virtual guide describe areas of the library," says Soulla
Stylianou, Daden's Client Director.
To support consultation, the Library of Birmingham can position
"preference podiums" anywhere within the library to capture
people's preferences on any given topic and create spaces where
different furniture configurations can be changed at a touch of a
virtual button. Visitors can also use Daden's annotated spaces (3D
post-it notes) to leave comments which subsequent visitors can
like/dislike. Those comments are immediately logged back to a
web-based database, and later visitors can like/dislike (as in
facebook) each comment, or add their own. As people like/dislike
the "post-it" notes (typically spheres) change colour and you can
end up with a very visual and colour coded commentary of someone's
journey through the building.
"Virtual worlds are all about community, collaboration and the
social aspects of an activity whereas the web which is typically
about the informational and transactional aspects. With a virtual
world model people can begin to understand what a building or space
will be like and share their experiences with others - something
quite different to watching a video fly through of a development,"
notes Soulla.
Daden have also built-in sensors providing useful data to the
Library team as to the routes people take and where visitors decide
to explore within the Virtual Library of Birmingham. By creating a
virtual model and letting users explore it we can start to get
answers to the very practical questions of how a building will be
used, which appear to be missed by more current techniques.
Brian Gambles, Project Director, Library of Birmingham,
said:
"Thanks to Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, who
have provided the funding, we have been able ot work with virtual
world specialists Daden to develop a Virtual Library of Birmingham.
This has already proved a powerful tool for the project team and
staff as we develop the new library, enabling us to get a really
good feel for how the spaces in the new building will work that
would not otherwise be possible.
"We're now opening the doors of the Virtual Library for the
public to come in, explore and share their comments and ideas, two
years before the real building opens in 2013. The sessions in
Central Library and Community Libraries over the summer are to
introduce the public to the Virtual Library and encourage people to
explore it for themselves."
David Burden end "Virtual worlds can provide a richness of
quantitative and qualitative data unrivalled by any other digital
technology. By using a virtual model we hope both library staff and
library users can help ensure that the physical library is a
success from the first day it opens its doors for real."