Virtual Reality in Libraries Project

The Washington State Library, in conjunction with the University of Washington and Oculus VR, started a pilot project in early 2018 to explore how virtual reality technology could be implemented in libraries. My library district participated in Phase II of this project. The original Phase II timeline was slated to run December 2018-May 2019.  Due to some weather/equipment transportation issues, our phase was pushed back to January 2019-June 2019 and later extended until September 2019.

Provided by the State:

(2) Oculus Rift headsets

(2) Computers configured to work with Oculus

(1) Oculus Go headset

A pre-approved set of Oculus Apps

Provided by our library district:

A safe space for patron use of equipment

Trained staff to facilitate the use of equipment

Secure storage of the equipment

~5 hours per week of available VR system usage time for patrons (~130 hours total)  This requirement was later lowered to ~3 hours per week (~78 hours)

We received initial training from the State Library and then coordinated training additional staff within our district to run the equipment. This worked well for our larger branches but made it difficult for our smaller branches with a limited staff to participate in hosting the equipment without support.  Early into this project, my position moved from a branch library to district operations, making it easier for me to facilitate more opportunities with the VR equipment. Without a staff person dedicated to coordinating equipment moving around the district, I don't know that we could have met our programming requirements.

VR Programming Schedule:

34 programs, ~136 hours, 227 participants 

February-March 2019: Revolutionary Reads: Virtual Reality (hosted by branches) (7 programs)

March-April 2019: Teen Tech Month: Game Design for VR (11 programs)

May-June 2019: Experience Virtual Reality (9 programs)

May 2019: Outreach: Virtual Vacations at Highgate Senior Living (1 program)

May-June 2019: 3D Sculpting in VR (3 programs)

June 2019: Outreach: Virtual Reality at Clark County Juvenile Detention Center (1 program)

July 2019: Outreach: Virtual Reality at Clark College MESA Program (1 program)

July 2019: Virtual Reality Drop-In (1 program)

Things We Learned:

• It is difficult to move the equipment to multiple branches as the equipment must be reconfigured for each space. 
• Batteries in the handsets die quickly.
• 12-year-old kids really want to use the VR equipment (Oculus regulations require 13 years or older).
• Oculus needed some sort of update in the middle of every program.
• Oculus doesn't work well without Internet access.
• With all 5 pieces of equipment in use, a 2-hour program can comfortably accommodate 8 participants.
• Teens really wanted to play Beat Saber.
• Oculus is difficult to use for patrons with disabilities.
• Unity is a great program and provides a rewarding challenge for teens.
• Teens are great for configuring the Rift and supporting each other.
• Our rural branches saw higher participation rates and enthusiasm for the technology.
• It is difficult to get signed waivers for teens (no adult present during the program).
• After the initial introduction, patrons quickly lose interest.
• Some patrons came to the program specifically to compare Oculus to the VR headset they have at home (mostly suburban libraries).
• Patrons are excited about the equipment and surprised at the (relatively) low cost. Especially for the Oculus Quest, which does not require the high-end computer.
• Without someone monitoring the tablets paired to the Oculus Go, it is difficult to monitor what the patron may be doing, downloading, viewing. We had to reset the Oculus Gos several times to take off downloaded software.
• The Oculus Go is arguably more challenging to facilitate as the patron has a difficult time setting their orientation, using the controller without seeing it, and the facilitator has to guess at what the patron is really seeing/doing. 
• Teens/young adults picked up the technology quickly. I was especially surprised at their mastery of the 3D sculpting program, Medium.
• Oculus Go requires 3 hours charge time and runs out of power ~ 1 hour.

For our library district, I feel that the sustainability of a VR program is questionable. I think it's great to give the opportunity for patrons to try out the equipment, but we lack adequate space to leave the equipment set up and a staff member with availability to facilitate while the patron uses the equipment.  The Oculus Go headset is a little easier for us to incorporate into passive programming and take on Outreach. 

  

April 2019 Experiential Learning Round-Up!

Teen Tech VR wrapped up. We completed our Game Design for Virtual Reality program for teens at all the branches. BG opted out due to refresh. VA (6), TC (4). Our total attendance for the 11 branch programs= 80 teens.

I presented in 3 sessions at OLA-WLA Annual Conference

I also attended the State Library’s Leap Into Science training. We cannot train other staff members but can enlist staff help to run these workshops. FVRL took 2 program kits and have agreed to lead 6 Leap Into Science: Wind activities in the next year.  I anticipate offering this workshop at the Gorge branches as they do not have any trained staff in this curriculum.

We tried out our new Create-a-Chain-Reaction kit, a Program Services STEM kit aimed at kids ages 3-6, at VA’s Explore program. Our SLA facilitated open-ended activity. Parents and their children, ages 3-6, were able to create several unique structures and demonstrated several skills in the design process. The group was engaged for the full program time and Our SLA was impressed with the quick mastery and continued the challenge of the kit materials. Several branches reserved the Create-a-Chain-Rection kit after I sent an email to branch librarians and YS staff announcing the new kit and providing a video on how the kit works.

I found out our Spheros needed a firmware update. I also took the time to create a video after I figured out everything that was wrong with them/what I was doing wrong while trying to use them 😌

We also got a few extra Code-a-Pillar heads to bulk out our kit, so I put together a video for them as well. Probably my favorite coding toy <3

I will continue to create videos to post to the Source page for the Program Services STEM kits that give staff a preview of what they are reserving and/or basic troubleshooting tips. I will also try to send out quarterly emails to staff about the STEM kits to continue driving interest and feedback on needed kits.

District Partnerships
Communications and Marketing created a draft of the public-facing 3D Printing page for the library website. We are calling this page “Maker Tools” to also include information on VA’s sewing machine.

I have finished the 3D printer certification training, incorporating all the feedback received from 3D Printing staff. The training is organized in Niche Academy, but the videos are linked through Youtube to utilize the CC functionality in Youtube (per patron’s request).  The certification is ready to go live to the public as soon as staff are finished reviewing the 3D Printing page.  Per staff request, I updated the 3D printing page on the Source with information on the contacts for each 3D printing branch as well as certification documentation and FAQ. I sent information directly to the 3D printing branches on the upcoming certification. I also identified Tele-Info and LibAnswers librarians as a group who will likely field a lot of questions, so I sent information to them as well. I will send an email to all staff when the 3D printing page is live on the website.

I led another 3D Printer staff training for BG staff during their closure. We trained 10 more staff members, including a few more from VA to create their own 3D models, use Thingiverse to learn more about printing with support and platform adhesion, and basic 3D printer troubleshooting.

The All Staff Day committee continues to plan for the September training. We have secured our keynote speaker and will soon have food and sessions locked down. Our plan is to not meet as a committee in June/July as committee members have a lot of commitments for Summer Reading.

Community Partnerships/Outreach
We participated in York Elementary’s first STEM Night (60 attendees). Participants K-5th grade and their caregivers chose 2 sessions to attend. The Library’s session offered circuit blocks and Edison robots. The Edison robots were acting up, so I spend April testing and troubleshooting. I found a firmware update for them and they seem to be working again.

We participated in Frontier Middle School’s STEM Night (500 attendees). Participants 6th-8th grade and their caregivers were able to interact with each station. The school requested we provide a soldering station. The school provided motors and LEDs and we taught participants how to solder the LED to the motor, then use the motor to generate energy to light up the LED.

I participated as a subject expert on the interview panel for Hillsboro Public Library’s first Collaboratory Coordinator. Hillsboro created this coordinator position to oversee the expansion of their makerspace (sewing, vinyl cutting, 3D printing, miscellaneous maker activities) at the Brookwood branch and the creation of their digital lab (green screen, podcasting, digital art) at the Shute Park branch. 

Teen Tech 2019: VR and Game Design in Unity

My first programming assignment as Experiential Learning Librarian for FVRL was to plan a teen tech program and take it to the branches. Since we have the Oculus Rift and Oculus Go on loan from the State Library, my teen tech program should somehow relate to this technology. I didn't have to do the program until March, but I had to get it on all the branch programming calendars by February 1...so I made up a very vague description to get it scheduled:

I wanted to create some experience for teens that would go beyond just consuming the content provided, but actual demonstrate how virtual reality can function as a creative output for teens. I had no idea how to accomplish this...so, I started looking into how to create content for VR and came across several options:

Creating 360 videos (maybe tours of our library branches?)

Comparing 360 cameras ^

Creating your own 360 camera ^^

Crawling around Oculus' Creators Portal

Creating content with Unity

+ Oculus Core Utilities for Unity

Unity seemed promising, but I didn't know if we had the hardware to run the software. I worked with my IT department to work on getting it loaded on one of the district's training laptops to test it out. This also involved me reaching out to Unity and requesting educational licenses by filling out this form.

We were granted 12 licenses from Unity and were able to load the core software to our Windows laptops. These aren't new or fancy laptops and Unity struggles a bit on our older set, but we were able to get the basics up and going...

And I found out...

Unity is COMPLICATED!

By the time we figured out the Unity licensing, I had just a couple of weeks before my first program. So, I started looking around Unity for intro content. 

I came across Unity's Roll-a-Ball tutorial and liked that it provided a good overview of many of the tools in Unity and several game mechanics, a bit of scripting, and wasn't insanely difficult (although I never got my last script to work...). I also liked the idea that if we got started and it sparked an interest in a teen, they could revisit the tutorial online and work at their own pace with (a lot more) explanation. 

With Unity loaded on 10 district laptops and the VR headsets, I was ready to roll...

Teen Tech VR programming completed (attendees): LC (10), WD (5), Mall (8), WA (10), RI (6), ST (8), CP (8), GD (12), WS (3), VA (6), TC (8)

LC: Most kids were 12, making them too young for the VR headsets. They also headed to the library directly from school, so no parents to sign off for those who were old enough. The kids had limited experience with coding. I learned that troubleshooting 10 separate C# scripts before we could move on really slowed our progress. I will create cheat txt of all the corrected scripts in case we get stuck with too many errors.

WD: We had 2 high school kids and the rest middle schoolers. The older teens did a good job supporting the younger ones and made a lot of interesting discoveries in Unity. This group made it almost all the way through the tutorial. Learned we needed more information on Scene View camera controls. Updated handout.

MALL: We had 2 high school kids and the rest middle schoolers. Heather @ the Mall told me that one of our attendees, Terrence, had been in the library for the past 2 weeks and had several negative interactions with library staff. Heather said she was impressed with how well Terrence did during the program and was full of questions about things to do at the library. Heather later reported that Terrence returned ot the library the next day and had a positive experience with library staff.

WA: Rachael wasn’t sure how many kids to expect as Teen night attendance had been low during the last few sessions. We started with 6 kids and the numbers kept steadily increasing as the evening went on. We focused most of our efforts on the VR equipment and the kids did a great job of configuring the Rift, and helping each other in and out of the equipment. The Rift decided to disconnect at the end and took some late-night troubleshooting to see where the wires had become disconnected.

 

RI: Today Visual Studio gave up letting us in to edit C# scripts. I had to create several dummy Outlook accounts (all some variation of Jamiehatesthis@outlook.com) to get us back into the program. We also had a great teaching moment about building each other up. One teen was criticizing another teen because they were taking a long time to type in their C# script. I told the teen I was unaware they were already an expert in this and asked if they wanted to explain it to the others, to which I received a deer in the headlights look. I told the teen that feeling they had right now is how they make others feel when they say things like that. We talked about supporting and encouraging one another because everyone has different strengths. From Sean: “Just want to thank the two of you for coming to Ridgefield to put on a program for Teen Tech Month. The tweens had fun judging by what I've heard this afternoon.”

We also had our first roll-an-almond project:

ST: The teens did a good job supporting each other in the headsets. While working in Unity, they quickly picked up how to add GameObjects and then script them. After the initial C# script was typed and compiled in Unity, they did a great job troubleshooting errors in their code. They quickly picked up the next steps and moved forward quickly through the coding components and troubleshooting errors in their 3D games. They worked together to get everyone’s code working.

CP: Teens were really into the VR headsets, so we spent quite a bit of time on those. We had a homeschooler who had some experience with Python, but was really reluctant to use C# and kept comparing it to Python. Another teen had a Sony VR headset at home, but decided that the Oculus Rift was better quality.

GD & WS: This was an all-day outreach adventure! For most of the programs, we've only had 1 Rift and 1 Go, but I'm glad we brought all the equipment on the 2-hour drive out to GD! I wondered why they wanted their program 1-3 on a Friday, but I learned that they had early release all week. Some teens dropped off their release forms earlier in the week and the librarian kept track of it for them. We had a great experience overall and had the teens work together on the Unity portion. I have got a pretty good system of helping troubleshoot one C# code and then have that teen help the teen next to them while I work with someone else. WS was a slower after-hours event, but the teens who showed up had a unique experience and were excited to tell their friends. 

I've clocked over 40 programming hours on this project. It was a great first project to get me in the branches and meet some of the teen patrons I hope to work with in the future!  I also did a lot of transporting equipment and seeing all corners of our amazing library district :)

I am also quite proud of my ingenuity with adding velcro to some of the boxes to keep them shut!