Some of our favorite Second Life sims for libraries have recently gone through a change of hands.  A few months back, the Alliance Virtual Library system (AVL) became the Community Virtual Library (CVL).   The Alliance Library System (ALS), a real life regional library system in Peoria, Illinois, had provided a large part of the funding for Alliance Virtual Library system.  They had decided to cut their program back and Community Virtual Library took over the management of Info Island, Info Island International, Imagination Island, and CybraryCity II.  But the changes did not stop there.  ALS had sponsored many other virtual islands with both educational and learning concerns and more recently, they let go of some fifty concerns.  Some of the more recognizable ones include Cybrary City, Cybrary Square (which went to Sonja Morgwain’s real life public library), Renaissance Island (which went to the management of Diamond Cornet and Korrigan Keynes), and Health Info Island which is now managed by Gentle Heron and Virtual Ability.  Finally, ALS had shared sponsorship of the Eduislands 2-10 with Sambiglyon; since 2009 those Islands have been managed solely by Sambiglyon.  Additionally, Innovation Info Island, which was sponsored by ALS has recently become Eduisland I and will fall under the auspices of Sambiglyon.  Pictured here is the mall and one of the buildings making up EduIsland 8.

I talked (or shall I say texted) with Fleet Goldenberg who, along with Girobatol Sprocket, makes up Sambiglyon, to find out if there would be any change of focus, mission, or policy regarding the Eduislands.  Goldenberg said, “Our present plans are to keep doing what we are already doing with the Eduislands in SL and to keep improving existing services and developing pioneering new ideas, whilst also expanding to other online platforms and other types of media.”

Goldenberg said that all surplus money remaining after operating costs is invested back into the Eduislands network to open new islands and provide new services.  The primary purpose of Sambiglyon is to provide rentable “land space” and associated support services to educators/educational institutions, libraries, and non-profit organizations for the purpose of creating online interactive centers to provide information and services. Although Sambiglyon’s primary market is currently education, they wish to serve any non-profit cause, including libraries, and have many library concerns on Eduisland 3.

Fleet Goldenberg did tell me that the primary goal of Sambiglyon is to be the undisputed leader in learning services in online virtual worlds.  He states that this goal will be attained and permanently sustained by a management team with decades of experience among its members.

The current managers of the Community Virtual Library are Abbey Zenith, Rocky Vallejo, and Hypatia Dejavu.  All three have worked very hard in building their sims (all were on board before the switch from AVL to CVL) and are continually involved in library networking endeavors, archiving of materials both real and simulated, and community-building programs.  Both Sambiglyon and CVL rent out space on their islands to provide funding, although CVL reports that it also relies on donations for a large part of its funding. It will be a useful and interesting activity to watch how these two organizations evolve.  With the evaporation of library funding throughout the country and the world, how can we make libraries survive and thrive in the virtual world?