So that’s my Second Life avatar, Hatchibombotar Stein, standing in front of the horse statue that is outside the Second Life Library 2.0. I may end up making him blue like Krishna or Dr. Manhattan or a Smurf, but he’s OK for the time being. If I ever have some time to burn, I might make him look more like Lucien, the librarian in The Dreaming.

I doubt I’ll spend much time in Second Life (my hands are pretty full in the First Life, thanks), but after reading Michael Sauers’ posts at TravelinLibrarian (Second Life and Virtual Attendance) and looking around at the Second Life Library 2.0 blog (if “Library 2.0″ = “L2,” does “Second Life Library 2.0″ = “2L-L2?”) I wanted to check it out. Business Week is also doing a cover story on Second Life this week.

After a short time in-game, I guess I’d say that the possibilities for Second Life are very intriguing, and were I ten or twenty years younger with more time to burn, I’d be all over it. Then there is the technical element; the game tests the limits of my sluggish DSL connection, and threatens to cook the processor on my PowerBook.

Basic accounts are free, so if you are curious you can take a look without any risk. The 2L-L2 folks are going great guns with their reference desk, hosting instruction sessions, and having an organizational meeting tonight at 6:00 Pacific time, following the book discussion of the book “Norwood” at 5:00 Pacific (I love how they give all the time zones except Mountain Time! What are we, chopped liver? Or the only folks who can be trusted to add and subtract?).

Tags: library, library2.0, second_life