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University of Southern Queensland joins in

SLOZ: Australia’s Second Life News Source reports that the University of Southern Queensland in conjunction with the Queensland Government now have an island in Second Life.

January 30th, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | one comment

MMOs and digital libraries

MMOs are Massively Multiplayer Online Games. For an MLIS class, library student Timothy Greig looked at how these could relate to a Digital Library. He’s posted the slides and notes to Flickr. He’s from Christchurch in New Zealand.

It’s called What can digital libraries learn from Massively Multiplayer Online Games and pays particular attention to World of Warcraft. He gives tips about how a MMO Digital Library could use the interface style from a virtual world. I particularly liked his suggestion that avatars of more experienced library users could give tips on using the library to less experienced ones.
Found via Tame the Web

January 25th, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | no comments

Get a First Life

Came across this parody page of Second Life Home page via: Laughing Librarian. No more to say.

January 22nd, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | 3 comments

Welcome to Aunty….

Remember way back…before gui browsers… when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation only had a couple of pages on its Internet site? (It looked nothing like the earliest archived page I can find - 23 October 1996) .

When I was first trying to get libraries interested in this new-Internet-thingy, I would always show the ABC web page, and the Library of Congress page - partly because there wasn’t much else outside univeristies, and partly for the gravitas it added to the idea of the Internet.

Well..last night I visited the brand new ABC Island (you can visit if you are a member of the ABC Friends group in SL). It’s in the same neighbourhood as the Australian Film Television and Radio School’s AFTRS’ Virtual Island. I sat with joKay Wollongong around an outback fire on ochre ground, contemplating the bare landscape. In the picture, you can see an RSS feed of the latest news headlines in the ground, plus the tour pod, showing that 156 tours have been made in the last day.

Later I took a tour of the island. It gave a running commentary of what is planned for the terrain… an Underground section for emerging bands, a place for building competitions, storefronts for various ABC departments, plus - of course -a place where you can receive ABC TV and radio.

More information is at Second Life Insider. Abi Goldflake (SL name I hope), who is co-ordinating the project is discussing it with interested Australians here on the SLOz forum. No press release yet - I think they are wisely waiting until there is more there.

I hate it when people cut big wads of a quote into blog posts, but I think it’s worth it for Abi’s outline of how ABC Island fits in with the ABC charter:

Under the ABC Charter our functions are:- ‘to provide within Australia innovative and comprehensive broadcasting services’ (and broadcasting is now taken to include all new media services too) - we see SL as very innovative and a real opportunity to do something new and engaging for our audiences

- ‘broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community’ - this is why we want our island to have a strong Australian feel and to be a place where Australians can come and find fun things to do which are distinctively Australian

- ‘broadcasting programs of an educational nature’ - this is where the information/education side might come in. I take Wolfie’s point about the Teen Grid (that’s perhaps a separate project for us) but in general the ABC attempts to provide content which educates audiences in a broad way.

- ‘encourage awareness of Australia and an international understanding of Australian attitudes on world affairs’ - SL is perfect for this - there is such a large international user base (particularly from the US at this stage) and there is real potential to provide a showcase for Australian talent, content and issues.

- ‘to encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia’ - again, the creativity of SL means there is real potential for the ABC to provide innovative musical and artistic content - whether it’s existing ABC content presented in a new way, or, more likely, content created by SL residents

So I think the Charter gives us a great starting point for some of the things we can do in SL. If you wanted to sum up our objective I’d say it is to develop a sense of Australian community based around content, creativity and innovation for Australian and international visitors to the ABC island.

January 21st, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | no comments

Sirsi Dynix sponsorship

At the ALA Mid-winter conference, Sirsi Dynix has announced that they will be sponsoring the two main islands in the Info Island Project on Second Life.

This sponsorship will support Info Island, run by the Alliance Library System and the Teen Second Life space, headed by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.  Its very exciting news and it will be very interesting to see what happen with this support.

January 21st, 2007 Posted by tango | Uncategorized | no comments

Doors are off…

Second Life is a clunky and crude kind of world, compared to most games. It is, however, a good place to learn how a library can “be” in a virtual world. We are still working out how to balance opening up access to our virtual services with appearing “real”. Take doors, for example.

During a building move, the doors accidentally weren’t put back on a building in Cybrary City. The result? People felt more welcome and there were more visitors.

I asked Abbey Zenith to take the front doors off the Australian Libraries building, but the back ones are still on. I’d be interested to know what people think- put the front doors back on, take back doors off, keep as is? Here’s a picture, which is really just an excuse to show off my new look avatar.

January 20th, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | 3 comments

And another Ozlibber…

Mparntwe Gruntled has joined. In one of those typical SL moments, on his first visit he sat behind a deserted reference desk on Info Island…maybe to take a snapshot….and then answered query when someone materialised.

January 12th, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | 2 comments

Welcome to new Ozlibrarians

Look out for Mark Hitchcock and Liberty Box next time you are inworld. They are very new but learning fast. Mark is already jumping about and even managed to crack up laughing. Many of you won’t have yet met Jemminy Platypus or HeyJude Jenns who joined the group about three weeks or so ago.

By the way, what is happening with changing the title from Ozlibber to Ozlibrarian? As Hypatia pointed out, people keep thinking we are affiliated with the Liberal party or “women’s lib” (not that feminism has been called that for over 20 years, but still…). I’ll see whether I can create a new role within the group and give that a new title, but I think it may need to be done by snail.

January 12th, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | no comments

“Flying Librarians of Oz” talk at the National Library

Wow! I’m going to give a talk on Second Life at the Australian National Library on Wednesday 14th February, 12:30 - 1:30pm in the Library Theatre as part of their “Digital Culture” series.

Here’s the info from the web site:

Flying Librarians of Oz: What’s the fuss about Second Life and what’s it got to do with libraries?

Second Life is an online virtual community created by its residents and run by Linden Labs. Over two million people have registered: Dell Computing, Adidas, Harvard Law School and the United States Congress all have a presence there.

There are over 250 Second Life Librarians. More than 4000 people per day visit InfoIsland where they can talk to a reference librarian, browse information resources, attend tutorials, listen to inworld broadcasts, trial databases and attend functions like music recitals and author talks.

Cybrary City gives libraries space to experiment in Second Life, in return for two hours voluntary work per week. Kansas State Library, IBM, Georgia Tech, Canadian Libraries and Michigan Library Consortium are among the 30 to 40 library buildings there.

Kathryn Greenhill, a librarian at Murdoch University Library in Western Australia, co-ordinates the Australian Libraries Building. She will provide a guided tour of the Australian Libraries Building and discuss some of the benefits to librarians of having a Second Life. See http://secondlife.com/

I’d really, really like to take a group snapshot of us all flying outside the Australian Libraries Building to show at the presentation. I’m making lots of movies and snapshots to use as a backup in case the live demo doesn’t work. Next time I meet you in SL, you may well be posed in a “natural” position and snapped.

Hypatia Arcadia has put up a sign for Australia Day outside the building..so maybe we could meet up some day near the 26th? (I’ll leave it to you guys to decide the best time, I’m not too good at picking them)

I’d like to know what people think I should mention. About half of the session will be question time, so if you can remember your first questions abourt SL, that would also be great.

January 10th, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | 5 comments

We are not alone..

OK..so there’s only a handful of us from the Antipodes..but at a library meeting tonight, there were enough library folk to crash Info Island.

When we regrouped spontaneously in Cybrary City, there was speculation about why the porn and gambling sites don’t crash..but the energy of a group of librarians managed to bring the sim down.

The meeting is adjourned until 6pm next Sunday SL time..that’s 11am next Monday Western Australian time.

While people waited around for the tutorial about how to build a 6 screen video display, Wellendorf eased our impatience with some nice cool beers.

Here’s a copy of the agenda. There’s an email list for SL librarians where you can find out this type of thing. About 10 messages a day, but you can sift out the most relevant stuff.

Agenda for Info Island meeting 1/2/07

1. Mention of Info Island in Jeremy Kemp’s Top 12 for 2006 - Lori
2. Who to Report to on What – Explanation - Lori
Information on Who to Report To
a. Info Island 1 – Building of Library Services – Abbey
Science Fiction and Fantasy – Floria/Michael
Mystery Manor – Jenna/Max
SL Training – Eiseldora
Genealogy –
Art Shows – Abbey/Bucky
Collections in Parvenu Tower and Main Library
b. Reference group needs to meet to discuss future of reference – set meeting
c. Orientation/tours- volunteer coordinator needed
d. Cybrary City, Eduisland, Info Island 2, HealthInfo - Development– Lori
1. Continuing Education for librarians
2. Working with Eduisland people
3. Further development of Info Island 2
4. Exhibits – Shadow
5. HealthInfo – Namro/Carolina
6. NMC/Higher Education – Maxito
7. Science Center - Hayduke
e. Programs/Events/Calendar – Lori and Abbey
f. Land/Island Issues – Brack Ludwig
g. Caledon and Branches - JJ
h. Advisory group - Puglet
3. Eduisland/SJSU progress - Lori
4. Island proposals/process - Lori
5. Formation of advisory council - Puglet
a. Timing
b. Duties
6. Island stewards – Puglet/Brack
7. Update on Activities – Abbey
Theater/Piano performance – Lori
SciFi/Fantasy – Floria/Michael
Medical – Namro/Carolina
Mystery – Jenna/Max
Book discussions – Maxito
SL Training – Eiseldora
Reference – Lori
Orientation/Tours – Abbey
Art shows – Abbey/Bucky
Science Center – Hayduke
Genealogy –
Website
Book – Lori
Grants - Lori

8. Scheduling Space on Info Islands – Abbey
9. Info Island Book – Andy
10. Other

January 3rd, 2007 Posted by Kathryn Greenhill | Uncategorized | no comments