If, unlike my avatar, yours has 8000 lindens (about US$30), you can register to take part in the Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums conference.
“The purpose of this conference is to provide a gathering place for librarians, information professionals, educators, museologists, and others to learn about and discuss the educational, informational, and cultural opportunities of virtual worlds.” — website
The conference is in Second Life at the New Media Consortium Conference Center (NMC) on March 8 2008, and according to the website, places are filling fast.
Preliminary Conference Schedule.
Tags: conferences, second life
March 1st, 2008
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Peta Hopkins | Uncategorized |
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I’m giving a paper about Second Life Librarianship for the VALA conference this Tuesday. I’m showing a couple of little movies I’ve made of Info Island and the Australian Libraries Building that I’ll link to when I’ve added sound.
Here’s the details
Tuesday 5 February 2008 1120 - 1150
CONCURRENT SESSION 1: Library 2.0
Kathryn Greenhill, Murdoch University, WA
Do we remove all the walls? Second Life librarianship
Over five hundred librarians worldwide are experimenting with providing library services in the Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) called Second Life including a small group of Australian librarians who constructed the Australian Libraries Building. This paper describes the interface and capabilities of a MUVE, the evolution of the Australian Libraries Building and the library objects built and scripted within it. It suggests some professional advantages for librarians who experiment within Second Life and the technical and managerial considerations of setting up a library presence there. It concludes by describing how Second Life library services have evolved as librarians better understood the potential of the MUVE interface.
January 30th, 2008
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Our very own Kathryn Greenhill has joined with CAVAL to offer one day workshops in Sydney and Melbourne on Second Life.
“Are YOU ready to “fly, teleport and change appearance at will”? Many library users are already leading mysterious double lives, but are Online Virtual Worlds an over-hyped Web 2.0 bubble or the Next Big Thing?”
Course details are available from the CAVAL website.
January 15th, 2008
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Peta Hopkins | Uncategorized |
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Couldn’t make it to the discussion of “The Librarians” in Second Life but wish you had?
The Transcript is here.
Tags: abc, librarians on television, second life
November 1st, 2007
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Peta Hopkins | Uncategorized |
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The entire library community knows about this bit:
The Librarians, is a new six-part comedy series from the ABC, based around the highly-strung head librarian of an outer suburban Melbourne library. This new social satire premieres on Wednesday October 31 at 9.30pm. You can also watch it online at abc.net.au/tv/librarians from 10:00pm.
But did you know that on Thursday night, you can chat about the show with other librarians on ABC Island in Second Life?
In conjunction with the ABC, Emerald Dumont - a librarian avatar from the Australian Libraries Building - will host a discussion of the show in the ABC Auditorium on ABC Island. Do we really look like that? What would you have added? What do you think will happen? Would other professions be having this discussion if the show was called “The Teachers” or “The Doctors”?
Brush off you avatar, or follow this guide to create a new one, and join in.
DATE: Thursday November 1st
TIME: 7:30pm AEDST, 5:30pm (WA Daylight savings) , 1:30am SL time (PDT)
PLACE: ABC Auditorium , ABC Island in SL
(If you are logged into Second Life, click on this SLURL to get there: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ABC%20Island/128/75/24)
Instant message Emerald Dumont if you need a Teleport to the event, or contact her close friend Kathryn Greenhill for further information ( kathryn.greenhill at gmail dot com)
October 26th, 2007
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The other day Peta posted an item over at librariesinteract.info about the Beyond Paper Bag project. In it she mentioned the unAPI plugin for WordPress. WordPress is the software that we use here to run the blog.
Recently WordPress version 2.3 was announced and I upgraded both librariesinteract.info and virtual.librariesinteract.info today. If you noticed something odd happening here with the blog this afternoon it was probably me doing the upgrade.
As part of the upgrade process I’ve installed and enabled the unAPI plugin. Now all of the posts here have metadata records available in the following formats: OAI-Dublin Core (oai_dc), Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), SRW-Dublin Core (srw_dc), MARCXML, and RSS.
As with any upgrade odd things can happen as a result. If you notice something please let us know.
September 30th, 2007
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techxplorer | Uncategorized |
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As reported in The Wired Campus, there is a new competitor for Second Life.
Kaneva is described as a cross between Facebook and a virtual world, or as one commenter said “Sims meets MySpace”. A review of Kaneva is available at metaversed, by Nick Wilson.
And you can check out the Kaneva promotional video on their home page.
August 22nd, 2007
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Peta Hopkins | Uncategorized |
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Journal of Information Literacy, Vol 1, No 2 (2007) has just been published. Lisa Foggo has a short article published there evaluating facilities in EduNation in Second Life as an information literacy training resource.
This paper aims to identify the value of the virtual world Second Life, and the educational facilities available in EduNation within Second Life, specifically as regards their use for information literacy in Higher Education. The author identifies potential benefits and drawbacks of Second Life and EduNation, and concludes that they do have potential value.
An evaluation of the possibilities of using Second Life’s EduNation in Information Literacy training
July 12th, 2007
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Peta Hopkins | Uncategorized |
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If you really want to know about Second Life Librarianship, then this six week online course may be for you. It does run at about 1am on Saturdays, our time..but apart from that…
Virtual World Librarianship – Your Second Life
“Avatars! Linden Dollars! Librarianship!
Librarianship? What ARE they talking about?
To discover how avatars, Linden dollars, and librarianship relate to one another, come join us in a continuing education course on librarianship in the virtual world of Second Life. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents, including real life librarians on Info Island.
The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Alliance Library System of Illinois have partnered to offer a six week online (in Second Life) course to introduce you to libraries and information services in a virtual world. The course starts May 25 and is open to all library and information professionals.
A continuing education course presented by the Illinois Alliance Library System and GSLIS
Dates: May 25, June 1, 8, 15, July 6 and 13
Online synchronous times: Fridays, 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Location: Info Island, Second Life
Cost: $200
Instructors: Kitty Pope, Lori Bell, Tom Peters, Rhonda Trueman, Barbara Galik
Week One: Introduction to Libraries in Virtual Worlds
Week Two: Second Life 101
Week Three: Collections, Resources, and Exhibits in Virtual Environment
Week Four: Reference and Information Services in Virtual Worlds
Week Five: Managing and Working in a Virtual Library or Department
Week Six: Skills Needed by 21st Century Librarians in Virtual Worlds
For additional information and to register, visit: http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/Second_Life.html or contact Marianne Steadley (Steadley@uiuc.edu), Continuing Professional Development Program Director, GSLIS
April 23rd, 2007
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Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized |
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Usually if people ask me if I’ll run a book discussion, I fly away as fast as my wings can carry me…but now I’m signed up to lead one about On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I’ve been sucked right in (or should I say, “engaged by”) the new Book Flower bed in the Readers’ Garden on Cybrary City II (teleport there now).
Princess Ivory and Alphonsus Peck have been working on the Readers’ Garden together. Last night I helped him test drive the new Book Flower garden.
To play, you click on the flower bed controller next to the bed. You can select a bush of irises, pansies or cosmos, which is planted out in the garden bed for you to find. When you find it, you click on it and are prompted for the title, author and description of the book you’d like to discuss.
Other people can now come to the garden, see your flower and click on it to register their interest in discussing the book too. If you have entered your email address, then you will be notified by email when someone shows interest.
So now, having sown the seeds of the idea, I’m waiting for interest to bloom and then I’ll set a suggested date and time for the discussion. Simple, engaging and fun. We’ve come a long way from the first Second Life library collections that just involved links to external sites from objects inworld.
April 1st, 2007
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Tom Peters writes about library architecture in Second Life. It seems we humans can’t quite leave our First Life comforts completely behind when we first venture into virtual worlds. Why do we even need buildings in SL he asks…
Read the full article.
March 23rd, 2007
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Last night around 7pm in Western Australia I was:
- in Second Life
- on ABC Island
- watching a streamed broadcast of an ABC Four Corners program about Second Life, YouOnly Live Twice
- waiting one and a half hours for the program to be broadcast on my tele
- sitting next to some people who were watching the program being broadcast on their tele.
- rather confused about where I was, what time it was, where the Four Corners program was, and when it was being broadcast.
- feeling thrilled to be part of an experiment and wondering where it will all lead.
March 20th, 2007
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Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized |
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It seems that Four Corners (ABC Monday 19th March 8.30pm) will be looking at Second Life. I saw it advertised on telly last night, but can’t find any information on the website.
March 15th, 2007
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Peta Hopkins | Uncategorized |
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Usually I don’t repost information that you can already find on the Second Life Libraries google group or Infoisland.com, but this one looked like a lot of fun. The time translates to 11am Friday March 16th for Perth people.
Let the Buzz Begin! Library 3.0 -
This is a weekly series of programs for librarians interested in talking about Library 3.0/Library 3-D. Tom Peters will open the eries on Thursday March 15 at 6 pm sl in the Cybrary City 2 open air auditorium. These are open mike. Each presenter will talk for 15-20 minutes on their view of Library 3.0 and then lead a discussion on the topic. Anyone interested in sharing their thoughts can attend and can in fact lead a discussion.
If you would likek to lead a discussion (we will try to space them throughout the timezones), please email Lori Bell (lbell at alliancelibrarysystem.com ) with some dates you are available and times and we will set these up. NMC has had great success with their teacher’s buzz. Us library folk need to join in.
March 6th, 2007
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The slides from my talk about Second Life and libraries at the National Library, 14th February are up at slideshare.net: Flying Librarians of Oz:What’s all the fuss about Second Life and what’s it got to do with libraries?.
Now - with new bonus features. It includes a series of slides with quotes from other librarians about the advantages of having a Second Life. It also includes my backup snapshots of the Australian Libraries Building.
February 23rd, 2007
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Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized |
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Often new visitors to the Australian Libraries Building will ask “how can I make money in Second Life?”.
Well, now I have an answer…”spend an hour and a half dancing with a mob of librarians in PJS and bunny splippers, and be voted as having the best female costume”. There’s 500Linden dollars for that one. Thanks if you voted.
Congratulations also to Rocky “Harley Fashionista” Vallejo, best dressed male.
Another snap from the evening. Note that Minnie Mouse in the front was tallying the votes, so ineligible.
February 10th, 2007
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Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized |
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Today the software that runs the Virtual librariesinteract.info blog was upgraded to the latest version. As with any software installation or upgrade odd things may occur. If you notice anything odd please let us know by commenting on this point, or emailing us at librarian [at] librariesinteract.info.
February 10th, 2007
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techxplorer | Uncategorized |
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Cybrary City has a party spot near the water and it is used every second Friday by a bunch of colourful dancing library avatars. The 1980’s radio station is streamed in as the music.
It’s a great way to meet other Second Life Librarians informally and get a feel for the bunch. About 30 - 50 turn up.
The parties are held at 7pm Friday Second Life time, which converts to 12 noon Saturday Western Australian time. This week (Saturday 10 February) is a Pyjama party. I’m afraid I couldn’t resist the bunny slippers.
February 10th, 2007
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Law librarian, James G Mills, now “gets” Second Life. He made a podcast while talking on Skype to Meg Kribble (whose Second Life name is Ann Idler). She gave him a guided tour of libraries and more in Second Life. If you are new to Second Life, it’s great to hear someone asking the questions you would. About a third of the way into the podcast, Ann shows him around the Australian Libraries building.
Here’s some details….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Check This Out! Episode 059: I Finally Get Second Life!
Monday, February 5, 2007
Playing time: 58:33
February 7th, 2007
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Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized |
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The library archipelago now consists of 13 islands: 8 Info Islands and 5 partners. An island is equivalent to about 65 500m2 and costs roughly USD900 to purchase and USD150 in monthly costs.
Three new islands have been announced:
ALA/Arts Island - half for the American Library Association and half for a replica European Opera house
Imagination Island. Half is Vendor Ville for vendors to share their wares. The other half, Rachelville, sounds very special indeed. Rachelville is donated by a couple in memory of their little girl, Rachel. It “will be a magical place with displays, environments, and experiments related to children’s literature and people who want to know more about it”.
Cybrary City 2 Libraries can purchase space here for between USD300 - USD500 per year, depending on the size of the plot. Plots are larger than in Cybrary City 1. The big attraction I see is that your neighbours would all be librarians and you would benefit from networking with them and be located on the Information Archipelago. I’d love to see a few Australian Libraries there. (I can dream). If your library is interested, contact Lori Bell ( lbell at alliancelibrarysystem.com) or Lorelei Junot in Second Life.
February 6th, 2007
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