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.
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.
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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.
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….
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Check This Out! Episode 059: I Finally Get Second Life!
Monday, February 5, 2007
Playing time: 58:33
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.
There was a Second Life librarians’ staff meeting around noon our time today on Info Island. The minutes are here.
There is a lot happening, but a few things stood out for me:
I like having the title “Australian” above my head, so I joined the “Australians” SL group. I left the group last night after my chat box was flooded with IM’s from the group about partying and fun. Bah humbug - I was trying to have a conversation and all they wanted to do was party.
The last couple of days I’ve been hanging out and not partying with some other Australians.
I visited Terra Incognita island from the University of Southern Queensland last night, and spent some time talking to creator Decka Mah, whose alter ego Lindy McKeown is working on virtual learning environments for her PhD. She used to be a teacher-librarian. She’s working with a team, and she showed me lots of cool toys - but my favourite is the blog sign. You click on the sign and then type text into the chat window. It is then automatically posted to the Terra Incognita blog at blogspot. Works for any blog which can have posts submitted via email. I’m planning to go back and take the guided tour capsule around the island in the next couple of days.
Graham Sabre and Lowell Cremone from the SLOZ (Australia’s Second Life News Source) blog visited the library a couple of days ago. Today their blog features an article all about the Australian Libraries Building, with a cheesy snap of Emerald Dumont in front of ……what is it? Visit the remodelled library and find out.
librariesinteract.info: blog central for Australian Libraries
Created originally for "nuts and bolts" discussion of the Second Life Australian Library project, so LINT wasn't flooded. Our Second Life building is in Cybrary City at 210,70,24. Teleport there now
Posts can include librarians in any other world, including World of Warcraft, gaming, speculative fiction or virtual library branches. This is the place for the more specific and technical posts.
LINT is still the right place to discuss issues about Other Worlds that will interest a general library audience.
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