Wednesday November 20th, 2:00pm-2:25pm @ Rangimarie 2 - Breakout Room

During Tech Week 2019 Puke Ariki Library offered VR (Virtual Reality) experiences to the community, exploring the theme “Technology that is good for the World”. During the sessions we observed customers reactions to their experiences of VR, and also asked their opinions by way of a survey. We observed the bringing together of all cultures and ages in our community, from families to individuals, with shared experiences that invoked the emotions of everyday life.

We would like to share our findings with you. Our decisions around technical equipment and evaluation of it, the setup of our “Tech Lab”, how we also took VR around our Community Libraries, our customers reactions - their joys and sorrows, our reactions to offering a programme such as this and the ease of doing so. We will also share how we were able to bring experiences to people who would otherwise not have been able to achieve them such as those with disabilities or mobility challenges. How humbling it is to open up the world and universe to people and be able to “change lives” (customer quote) through our libraries.

Where VR has to date been expensive technology that people have been looking for the real purpose of, we believe we are starting to identify benefits. As technology develops, becomes more accessible and affordable and more people create content, we see opportunities to enrich the lives of people in our community through this technology.