Into the Metaverse - Perspectives on a New Reality.

As virtual and augmented reality technologies continue to advance, a new concept has risen above the rest that aims to advance the virtual experience to create a complex, interactive and interconnected world - known as the metaverse. Offering a near limitless potential, the metaverse would provide new 3-D environments for people to communicate, shop, learn, work, and do anything that would normally be done on the internet. This column will introduce the metaverse, provide current examples of development, and consider a few takeaways for medical librarians.