Reflection Blog: Telling Real Stories Through Virtual Reality

Hidden Cave VR Gameplay Footage (Churchill County Museum, 2022)

Over the last couple of weeks, this author has discussed the ways libraries are implementing Virtual Reality (VR) in order to improve current services and programs or create new, innovative ones. This week, we will continue the conversation by discussing how libraries have implemented VR to improve their storytelling efforts by looking at a project out of Reno, Nevada. If library professionals want to take their libraries beyond just another format that a user can use and into Library 2.0, where the institution is embedded into the community, they must work to “actively seek out and uplift diverse voices, create programs that invite participation, and design environments—both physical and virtual—that are welcoming to all” (Stephens, 2025). Furthermore, by preserving, sharing, and creating stories from diverse communities, libraries can play a role in facilitating community cohesion, as people from other communities will have their explicit and implicit biases challenged by hearing from actual individuals (Aarne-Skidmore, 2021; Stephens, 2019, 2025, n.d.; Wentz, 2013). Increased cultural intelligence (CQ) for the win! To provide a quick example of an excellent non-VR storytelling initiative, the Human Library Organization was established in Denmark, hosting events where individuals can volunteer to become “books” and share their stories with readers who “check them out” (Aarne-Skidmore, 2021; Wentz, 2013). This is a type of program that is scalable to any library, regardless of its size.

To shift the focus back to VR storytelling initiatives, the University Libraries, in Reno, Nevada, partnered with the Nevada State Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Churchill County Library, the Churchill County Museum, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Learning Center, and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, among others to create a VR experience of Hidden Cave (Arrival 3D, 2021; Churchill County Museum, 2025; Nevada University Libraries, n.d.). Hidden Cave is a prehistoric archaeological cave that Lake Lahontan carved out approximately 20,000 years ago, serving as a cache site for various tribes, including the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone tribe (Churchill County Museum, 2025; Nevada University Libraries, n.d.). The cave has been accessible to the public since the 1980s, but in 2020, due to a successful grant bid and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nevada University Libraries (n.d.) undertook a project to create a VR simulation of Hidden Cave. Utilizing 3D scanning and LiDAR tools, the team created a VR experience that immerses the user in the cave (Arrival 3D; 2021). Although the cave is empty in the real world, the team also 3D-scanned artifacts that would have been stored in the cave thousands of years ago and incorporated them into the experience, thanks to collaboration with partnering museums and the local native tribe (Nevada University Libraries, n.d.). When a user is loaded into the VR experience, they have access to a “narrative tour of the cave, 3D artifacts you can pick up and handle, and multimedia information about the site, its formation, and its uses by Indigenous people for millennia” (University Libraries, n.d.). One of the best aspects of this project is that it is free to download for anyone with the proper hardware. Furthermore, this is a notable example of libraries collaborating with community organizations to develop a program that tells the story of an ancient site.

References

Aarne-Skidmore, E. (2021, August 4). New study on the impact of the Human Library. Human Library. https://humanlibrary.org/new-study-on-the-impact-of-the-human-library/

Arrival 3D. (2021, October 15). 3D laser scanning services: Creating a VR experience of a hidden cave. https://arrival3d.com/vr-experience-created-with-3d-laser-scanning-services/

Churchill County Museum. (2022, September 16). Hidden Cave VR gameplay footage [YouTube video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP223VDL2hQ

Churchill County Museum. (2025). Hidden Cave. https://www.ccmuseum.org/visit/hidden-cave/

Nevada University Libraries. (n.d.). Hidden Cave experience. Retrieved July 27, 2025, from https://library.unr.edu/collections/unique-collections/digital-collections/virtual-reality/hidden-cave-experience

Stephens, M. T. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship: Finding hope, inspiration, and balance (1st ed.). ALA Editions.

Stephens, M.T. (2025). Module 10: The power of stories. INFO 287 – The Hyperlinked Library. https://287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu/course-modules/the-power-of-stories/

Stephens, M. T. (n.d.). Office hours: With a little twist & power of the pod. INFO 287 – The Hyperlinked Library. Retrieved July 27, 2025, from https://287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu/office-hours-with-a-little-twist/

Wentz, E. (2013, April 26). The Human Library: Sharing the community with itself. Public Libraries Online. https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/04/human_librar/