Improving Digital Experience Through Modeling the Human Experience The Resurgence of Virtual (and Augmented and Mixed) Reality

Abstract

This chapter is designed generally to introduce information professionals and researchers to the topic of VR, to characterize its potential to enhance human experiences, and to identify the concepts that are critical to its application. The chapter is also intended specifically for professional librarians and applied library information science researchers who aim to integrate new interface technologies and design concepts into library systems. As authors, we are embedded in the research and practice of libraries. We have sought out both the literatures of interactions in virtual reality and the emerging technology of its implementation. This is new territory for libraries. So while we conjecture that the new affordances that VR and related technologies supply have substantial potential for libraries, the pathways are necessarily speculative.