Virtual Branch Made Easy

The 2nd Life presentation today was excellent! Thank you :) I am particularly interested in this technology because I can envision a virtual branch to our library system that goes way beyond somewhat static homepages. Wouldn't it be great to get your own island in 2nd Life as a virtual library branch? (Go Yarra Plenty!) Boundless social networking galore. I guess I am wondering what virtual world residents want out of libraries? Do we need to just build a virtual branch with links to 2nd Life to keep our focus on our system, or do we use 2nd Life as a virtual springboard for our system? Is the focus even ON our system or more on libraries in general? Why do people go into virtual libraries? Who are they looking for and what? (Thanks Tom Peters, Lori Bell and Kitty Pope for your fab article addressing some of these questions.) When I was at the SirsiDynix Superconference in Colorado, I spoke with librarians who are developing virtual branches and they describe having a 24/7 365 online presence via Elibrarians. (Way Cool.) I spoke briefly about this with Helene Blowers, from PLCMC and she brought up the good point that they (PLCMC) already have that presence in their current websites. So I ponder, plan and imagine what could be, because after all, that's what this class is all about.