How big is the Alliance Virtual Library in Second Life® ?

Slide18, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.

How big is the Alliance Virtual Library in Second Life?

V-e-e-e-e-r-y big and very cool!
Alliance Virtual Library: 50 Islands – virtual equivalent of 1.26 square miles (within the 380 square miles of Second Life, almost 3 times the size of Singapore).

The Second Life Library opened in April 2006 on a 4,000 square meter patch of leased land. By May 2006 they received an anonymous donation of an island (65,536 square meters). The Second Life Library is a collaborative project led by the Alliance Library System (ALS), based in Peoria, Illinois, USA and is led by Executive Director Kitty Pope with Innovation Librarian, Lori Bell. ALS coordinates the activities for the Alliance Virtual Library and the efforts of many library volunteers from around the world. The daily operations in SL are overseen by Rhonda Trueman (Abbey Zenith in SL). In 2007, the Second Life Library was the winner of the ALA Information Today’s Library of the Future and one of six Sirsi-Dynix Building Better Community awards. The Alliance Virtual Library recently had to move its land mass to a new area in the grid to allow room for growth.

The momentum continues. Alliance Virtual Library (core library islands and partner islands) has grown to a land mass of 50 islands. So the Alliance Virtual Library community now has a footprint of 1.26 square miles! (810 acres or 1.26 square miles or 3.28 square km). One of the Cybrary Islands alone is home to over 40 independent libraries /organizations from around the world. Further numbers include the 1500 Friends of the Library in the “in world” group, 755+ declared Librarians on the google group:
http://groups.google.com/group/alliancesecondlife and 800+ in the many “in world” groups in Second Life.