I'd like to welcome the new members of the Library360 Lab. We are excited to have you join us on this 360 adventure. Virtual handshakes to: Lois Markiewicz, aurora, dee987, echesnut and kbariola. This is an open forum. Please feel free to share your ideas, questions and projects. If you'd like to c

Don't have a 360 camera? You can stitch a series of shots together with the popular open source app Hugin. Click here to download from Launchpad. Also on the Launchpad page you will find links to the home page for the app and more.

It's not easy keeping the photographer out of a 360 image. Especially with the limited wifi range of the camera, with which your phone or tablet must stay connected to take each shot. Whenever wifi issues emerge, there can be a delay before the phone reconnects, and a frustrated photographer might

Naive New Beaters - Heal Tomorrow - Clip 360° ft. Izia This 360 video is worth watching more than once to see the full range of activity in each of the three primary sets, above, and below.

ThingLink made it very easy to dive into 360 image editing and tour creation. But as with any developing technology, we have run into some technical challenges. Cropping We had to experiment a bit to find the best picture size for the custom tags that have side-by-side text and image. This is c

This example created with ThingLink by the French paper L'Echo highlights work by artist Denis Meyers, and features edited audio interviews about the project that add to the experience of exploring the installation. Great navigation options on the floor! Click here to access the 360 tour.

Embedded video can really bring life to a 360 tour. In the first example below, a tag on an easel advertising library programs becomes an opportunity to publicize a Therapy Dog program held every fall and spring semester during exam week. A row of computers across from the Reserve Desk at which s

If you share our excitement about using 360 images and video not only for user orientation, but also as a new channel for information access and library instruction, please consider joining this forum! Together, as we explore the possibilities, we can share the results of our experiments, our q

Viar360 is the choice of a number of universities for the development of VR lessons that can be integrated in to existing VLE/LMS. It can be used to create interactive stories with more than one option for students to choose, and visual editors to facilitate the development of branching narratives.

Makevt is a free cloud version of the krpano engine. There is a fee version which supports HTML5 for better viewing on tablets and smartphones. Makevt empowers users to add text to objects, create hotspots that react to mouse hovers, insert images, animations, and video, create transitions betw

This project began as a library collaboration at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette between (left to right) Jennifer Hamilton, Head of Instruction, Heather Plaisance, Head of Reference, Blair Stapleton, Assistant Dean of Public Services, and Graduate Assistant for Instruction Jordan Richard

Most 360 annotation platforms offer some sort of tag that combines text, a photo, and a way to link to an outside resource like a web page or database. A tag we found ourselves using quite often in our ThingLink tour is a Custom Tag like this one: This style of tag can be adjusted so that the im

ThingLink is a tool for annotating screenshots, pictures, and 360 images with video, text, and calls to action. Anyone can set up a basic account for free and annotate screenshots and 2D images. This is a fantastic tool for making database instruction more engaging, and giving links to lots of re

Google's new Tour Creator is designed to make it easy for anyone to create and interactive virtual tour, using either their own 360 images or images grabbed from Google Street View. You can read a VR Scout article describing the launch at https://vrscout.com/news/google-tour-creator or check out To

For a look at how easy it is to start your first 360 tour or subject guide on ThingLink, click here for a step-by-step walk through.

ThingLink embed tags make it easy to drop in code from other sites to embed forms, maps, documents, and video services offering embed options like Youtube and Vimeo. Video can also be embedded with a simple link using the Video tag, which also offers space for a text annotation.

I found the following posts about what makes a good story in 360 video/VR quite interesting. This goes beyond the static library tools we have in beta, but the ideas are thought provoking and may enrich how we think of even the simplest 360 subject guide: VR Storytelling Guide by Dejan Gajsek, fo

This tour of the Bodleian Library, published by The Telegraph Nov. 16, 2016, is very nicely narrated.

These simple tags load quickly and are very easy to read. The background and text colors can be customized to meet the design needs of your tour and/or subject guide. The size of the box can also be adjusted.

Another Custom Tag option in ThingLink is to place text and a call to action button over a full sized background image. Visually, it helps to have a variety of tag styles, especially in areas with tags clustered together. The "Search for Articles" button above leads to the library home page, whe

WondaVR facilitates the development of immersive role playing games, the annotation of 360 photos and video with hotspots, and to create virtual product demonstrations. Because it is desktop rather than browser-based, content can be created that uses your institution's custom fonts for more seamles

SeekBeak is another easy to use cloud-based 360 image editor (with video editing in beta) that allows the addition of interactive content. The tags aren't quite as fancy as ThingLink's, but Seek Beak tags can include text, which makes it very clear to the user what would be triggered by each tag.

TourDash virtual Tours are navigated just like Google Map street views, with arrows on the floor that users click to explore in different directions. “Hot Spots” can be established that automatically pull up messages for users as they reach particular areas. These messages can include links to t

Our first annotated 360 Tour was developed in ThingLink. We chose to begin beta-testing in ThingLink because of the user-friendly design interface and the very affordable educational pricing. Would you like to give it a spin? Click on "Sample Tour" in the menu at the top of this page, or go to

The most significant challenge we have encountered so far in the development of 360 image-based subject guides is that it has been a struggle for some testers to shift their preconceived views of what a 360 can be. The idea that the tour isn't of the PLACE but of the RESOURCES can be a challengi

Our team tested two different cameras, and found that regardless of equipment, 360 photography involves working around some inherent challenges, including 1. Finding the right height 2. Staying out of camera view without leaving the limited wi-fi range of the camera to trigger each shot 3. Thing