The Graphics Library Stereo Vision engine (GLSVe) is a freely available open-source C library based on OpenGL. It has been designed to facilitate the creation, mainly by researchers or students, of graphic and virtual reality prototypes incorporating stereoscopic representation. Its design will allow a stereoscopic graphic application in an easy way and without previous theory knowledge. This is demonstrated to be a good training for student's motivation in order to learn the theoretical bases by means of experimentation. The observer, the 3D pointer, the screen, the 3D sound and the graphics primitives are managed through different classes. This allows easy implementation of virtual reality scenarios if a tracking system is available (including multiscreen environments). Graphic primitives could have different appearance as they are seen by each observer eye, allowing the development of software for optometry research. Different stereoscopic modes have been implemented: side by side, cross eye, anaglyph, interlaced, alternated pages and dual stream. The article describes the GLSVe architecture and main capabilities, as well as different application scenarios (virtual reality environments; ophthalmology research; and visualization and compilation of geological photo pairs).