Kevin Comerford
Director of Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication
University of New Mexico
Virtual reality (VR) technology and tools continue to develop apace, and while high-end VR labs and research initiatives have become fairly ubiquitous on campus, there are still many areas where the application of VR to teaching, research and library service can be explored by librarians, faculty and students—particularly, but not exclusively, to those in the arts and humanities fields. Recent developments in Virtual Reality hardware, software tools, and 360 degree photography have put VR within the grasp of library special collections units, outreach and of course digital initiatives departments, both in terms of budget requirements and technical expertise. This makes the academic library environment particularly suitable to provide VR exploration, consulting and training resources to the university community. This presentation will survey current VR projects at the University of New Mexico, including use of wireless VR headset use in the classroom, hosted online VR environments, virtual campus tours, and cultural heritage documentation using 360 degree photography.