Before reading these articles on Virtual Reality in Libraries, I didn’t know much about either subject. Usually when I think of virtual reality, I think of video games, or maybe something close to the events in the Matrix films, but virtual reality has so many more applications than that and some of it is mind-blowing. Public, school and academic libraries are taking advantage of this new technology. The main piece of equipment they need to get started is a viewer, or VR headset; you can use the Oculus viewers, your smartphone or HTC Vive to name a few. To make content, you need a 360 degree camera to be able to create your virtual world or lessons. There is a lot of content available online like YouTube VR being one of them.
Virtual Reality is also an educational tool. The Virtual MLK project places you in some of Martin Luther King's most famous speeches like the, "White Rock Baptist Church, in Durham, North Carolina. It was February 16,1960—-just a couple of weeks after the famous Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins—and the civil rights leader was there to urge his supporters to further nonviolent action." (Ford, 2017). One of the remarks that I saw in both articles was how using VR can help students be more empathetic by experiencing something instead of just viewing it. There are so any possibilities with VR in libraries, as teaching tools, discovery of places and things, re-creations and video games.
Here is a list of some of the resources and the content they exist for VR. (Johnson, 2019)
- Google Expeditions (history, science, and the arts)
- Discovery VR (people, places, and nature around the world)
- National Geographic 360 videos (science, exploration, adventure)
- Google Arts & Culture 360 videos (music, theater, visual arts, historic buildings, and more) 360Cities.net (cityscapes and countryside panoramas around the world)
- Nearpod VR (lesson library includes VR content only by subscription, but in the free version educators can add weblinks to 360 images)
- YouVisit.com (U.S. cities and college campuses)
- Seeker VR (science, technology, culture)
- NASA.gov (science on Earth and in space)
- AirPano (natural wonders and human-created structures around the world)
- News organizations such as ABC News VR, New York Times VR, CNN VR, Life VR, and PBS Video
Black Studios. (2020, May 29). VR Virtual Reality 360°: Monsters from the Deep. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXsNX_2AzM8&t=2s
Ford, A. (2017). Making Virtual Reality a Reality: NCSU Libraries offer top-notch simulation technology. American Libraries, 48(9/10), 20–21.
Johnson, J. (2019). Jumping into the World of Virtual and Augmented Reality. Knowledge Quest, 47(4), 22–27.
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