The newly updated plaza on Cybrary City II.

Cybrary City II, also known as Cybrary 2 or Cy2, has a new, updated look thanks to efforts led by Rocky Vallejo who recently assumed management of Cybrary 2. Some of the additions and improvements made to this sim include creation of a central plaza with informational stone monoliths, a casual conversation area, teleports to organizations in the sim and a reference area linking to Info International.

The reference area Cybrary City II.

Cybyrary City II opened in February 2007 as a member sim within the Info Island Archipelago. It was set up as a place where libraries, educational institutions and organizations could pursue virtual projects, provide spaces for classes and online discussions, offer services and resources to SL residents and otherwise educate people on the uses of virtual settings. When asked about his motivation for taking on Cy2, Rocky said, "My real life library, the State Library of Kansas, has a parcel on Cybrary 2 and I felt a vested interest in seeing that this sim flourish, so I accepted the job. In this role I wanted to provide easy access to the organizations and libraries with parcels on the sim, set out comfortable, quiet meeting areas and also offer resources and references to visitors."

Refurbishing the central area of Cybrary 2 was Rocky's first priority. He created a "promenade, Cy2 Plaza, stretching north from the Pet Bereavement Center on the south side of the sim to the beautiful pond set out by Brackish Ludwig and Abbey Zenith when Cybrary City II opened." The plaza has marble signs that ask basic questions: who? what? when,? where?  why? and how? Each has links to information that addresses these questions as they pertain to Second Life and landmarks to the Reference Desk on Info International and the Second Life Resource Center. Rocky tells this anecdote about this part of his project: "I was very proud of my stone linkers until a passer by told me they looked more like large slabs of expensive cheese. Humbled a bit,  I wondered if I shouldn't have named the promenade Brie2 Plaza instead of Cy2."

BrianA Corleone's sky pod.

Another phase of the Cy2 update was the addition of small meeting rooms, floating high above the sim. "BrianA Corleone took on the job and created two pods, one 400 meters above the plaza and the other 500 meters up. Teleporters on the south end of the plaza will transport avatars to these sky meeting rooms with little if any bother from others on the sim. Each skyroom provides seating for ten and will hopefully be used for discussions, classes and other gatherings on Cybrary City II," says Vallejo.

The border between Cybrary City 2 and Cybrary City with new teleport board.

With the aim of providing easy access to the sim for visitors, Vallejo set up a teleport board on Cy2 Plaza and added more teleport boards at sim entry points, and added the Cy2 Management Group and parcel names to the Second Life search engine.

Overall, Vallejo is pleased with his renovations, "The whole process has been enjoyable, though at times frustrating. Testing the teleporters has often meant trips  'to the moon' while trying to get coordinates straight. Working on the plaza has also been a great opportunity to meet some of the other residents of Cybrary City II."

Rocky Vallejo (Bill Sowers) is the Cataloging/Kansas Documents Librarian at the State Library of Kansas. He's been at the State Library for 25 years. He entered Second Life in August, 2006, and with his wife, Cindy Elkhart (Diana Sowers) has been involved as a volunteer on the Info Island Archipelago since about day one. He is Head of Collections on Info Island, co-coordinator of Rachelville and Mythica on Imagination Island and works on the AVL catalog.