“After reading the articles above, write a post of 400 words that considers one advantage of the use of either virtual or augmented reality, and one disadvantage. Discuss in relation to a library or information organisation that you are familiar with.”
Source: Campus Technology
Libraries worldwide use virtual reality (VR) in programming for children, adults, and seniors, with the games ranging from fun and excitement to a way to try new technology that they otherwise could not afford or my favourite one, as a social tool.
With the right programs, VR can encourage empathy and social cohesion by simulating lived experiences in the hope that if through the game, an emotional connection is made, that person may stop seeing someone as “other” and relate to a group of people they consider “other” and potentially change their perception of them in the future. Meta even has a category for these types of games in their VR game store titled VR for Good which explains “Narratives that examine the treatment of people belonging to any race, religion, gender, and sexual identity, and aims to use these stories to promote connection, empathy and equality” (Meta, 2024).
Award-winning VR game The Key, uses metaphorical storytelling and magical realism to demonstrate the plight of refugees, We Live Here lets users interact with objects that serve as animated memories to understand the reality of homelessness. The Anne Frank House museum offers a 25-minute virtual tour of what the annex in which Anne Frank and seven others hid from the Nazis would have looked like during World War 2. VR makes these experiences feel immersive and real, something less likely to happen than by reading a book or watching a news article.
Anne Frank House VR Tour: Graphic by Seeflection.
The disadvantage is that VR comes at a cost. Aside from the initial purchase, there are staff costs to consider for facilitating each session: setup, demonstration, supervision (to avoid participants running into walls or throwing the controllers through the TV screen) and troubleshooting. Where I work, we use a Sony VR headset attached to a PlayStation; to buy these new the costs are approximately $799 for a PlayStation 5 and $879 for the Song VR 2 headset. For the aforementioned Meta headsets, the costs can vary between $439 to $ 1729, depending on the model. In addition, games will need to be purchased as your library visitors will only play the demo version for so long; if you want the good stuff, you’ll need to pay anywhere up to $60 a game (VR Space, 2022). The other factor to consider is cost-effectiveness, as only one person can use the VR headset at a time, is it worth the time and money if only a few people get to test it out?
(412 words).
References
Anne Frank House. (n.d.). The Anne Frank house in virtual reality: the secret annex VR app. https://www.annefrank.org/en/about-us/what-we-do/publications/anne-frank-house-virtual-reality/
Dahya, N., King, W. E., Lee, K. J., & Lee, J. H. (2021). Perceptions and experiences of virtual reality in public libraries. Journal of Documentation, 77(3), 617–637. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2020-0051
Electronics Boutique Australia. (2024). PlayStation 5 (slim) disc console. https://www.ebgames.com.au/product/ps5/302139-playstation-5-slim-disc-console
Electronics Boutique Australia. (2024). Sony PlayStation VR2. https://www.ebgames.com.au/product/ps5/290554-sony-playstationvr2
Lee, K. J., King, W. E., Dahya, N., & Lee, J. H. (2020). Librarian perspectives on the role of virtual reality in public libraries. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 57(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.254
Meta. (2024). Compare your Meta quest. https://www.meta.com/au/quest/compare/
Meta. (2024). VR for good. https://about.meta.com/community/vr-for-good/
Meta. (2020, April 17). Unlock a mysterious journey with ‘the key’ on Oculus Quest and the Rift platform. https://www.meta.com/en-gb/blog/quest/unlock-a-mysterious-journey-with-the-key-on-oculus-quest-and-the-rift-platform/?intern_source=blog&intern_content=vr-for-good-we-live-here-puts-a-face-on-homelessness&utm_source=www.meta.com&utm_medium=oculusredirect
Meta. (2020, December 20). VR for good: ‘we live here’ puts a face on homelessness. https://www.meta.com/en-gb/blog/quest/vr-for-good-we-live-here-puts-a-face-on-homelessness/
Sony Interactive Entertainment. (2024). PlayStation VR. https://www.playstation.com/en-au/ps-vr/
VR Space. (2022). How much are VR games? https://vr.space/news/games/how-much-do-vr-games-cost/