Introduction to SL for newbie librarians

Intro Workshop_037
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Last evening Katt Kongo of the Mettaverse Messenger (pictured right) gave a presentation on the roof of the library for us librarians that are still getting our feet wet when it comes to SL. Topics such as basic object manipulation, teleporting, dancing, chat & IM, friends, gestures, and the camera view were covered in this 1.75-hour session. (Snapshots of most of her slides can be found int he flickr photo pool.) All of the attendees enjoyed the presentation and didn't seem to mind that the session, scheduled for one hour, went as long as it did.

One side comment: I don't know what the official etiquette is but please, if you're attending a workshop, and you want to have a conversation with someone that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, please use IM instead of chat. The rest of us don't need the distraction.

Second Life Guides

Today I had another Reference question: How do I create CDs in Second Life. I personally had no idea, so I first pointed the user to the Wiki, and continued searching myself. I googled the site, the wiki, and the internet to find nothing particularly helpful, so I looked for a person to contact. I know that New Citizens has many great programs so I looked up their group, and one officer was on. She was extremely helpful and informative. She invited me to join the group (New Citizens Inc.), and told me that we can ask questions on the group chat at any time and someone will answer. I also invited her to use our library as a place to hold some of the classes. She took a landmark, and hopefully will come check the place out.

How to create CDs in Second Life:
you have to upload songs in 10 second clips so to create a CD you have to write or copy a script that will buffer the music and make is play smoothly. You may be able to find the script in freebie lots, but New Citizens is has a class Tuesdays at 5pm SL time about basic scripting.

The development wiki should be helpful for these types of questions as well. It is separate from the general wiki.

I was also visited by a Class of School Media Specialists. I only had enough time to say hi, but their guide showed them around our library. (He was here yesterday at the desk with me)

New Developments

We now have a garden at Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 with a gazebo, lots of flowers, trees, and a water fountain. We have also built a smaller building for librarians to practice building and decorating in. Namro is developing a great new service I will let you tell him about. Let us know what you think of the gardens.

Upcoming Programs at Alliance Second Life Library 2.0

A Guide to Second Life for Newbie Librarians
Date: Saturday, April 29, 2006
Time: 5:00PM - 6:00PM (60 minutes)
Location: Minoa (205,85)
Host: Rain Noonan
Category: Education
Cover Charge? No

Event description: Katt Kongo, Publisher of the Metaverse Messenger will provide a brief introduction to Second Life Librarians who are new - and tips and tricks for living a Second Life. She will also take questions.The training session will be on the roof of the library.

How to Start and Run a Business in Second Life
Date: Saturday, May 6, 2006
Time: 5:00PM - 6:00PM (60 minutes)
Location: Minoa (205,85)
Host: Rain Noonan
Category: Education
Cover Charge? No

Event description: If you are interested in finding out how to run a business in Second Life, how it works, and ideas for starting one, come to this program on the roof at Alliance Second Life Library 2.0. The presenter is Katt Kongo, Publisher of the Metaverse Messenger. Everyone is welcome.

Librarian stereotypes

Someone pointed me to SLBoutique.com earlier today so I went to see what free stuff I could pick up. Just for fun I searched their inventory for "librarian" and actually found two items. The first, Sensual Librarian Shades. The second, a hairstyle named ~**The Librarian** ~REMIXED. Yep, you too can wear narrow glasses and have your hair in a bun. For females only of course.

Why the kilt had to die.

Why the kilt had to die.
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

I was waiting to take the textures class when I decided to play with the camera pov and looked at myself sitting down. Turns out I wouldn't have looked very professional while sitting at the reference desk and that's putting it mildly.

Clothing 101

Clothing class_010
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Earlier this evening I attended the weekly Clothing 101 class in New Citizen Plaza. It was very basic so I didn't actually learn anything new, just confirmed what I already figured out on my own. Pictured is the class itself during which we each stood on a "blue mat" so the instructor, Brace Coral, could see each of us following her instrucitons and modify our clothing.

I was able to ask the instructor about my kilt "problem" and a solution was offered but I couldn't implement it properly so that idea was abandoned. I've since edited my kilt's texture and mostly solved the problem. (Just made black, non-tartan stripe at the top and it mostly blends into the jacket.)

Multi-tasking

I am working on my Finals while I have SL open, and today I was joined by a passerby that saw me in the window and wanted to come in. I welcome him to come in and look around. He walked behind the desk, and I thinking he was a librarian offered a seat.

He was very happy to sit down and talk with me, but also wanted to know why we were sitting behind a desk. I explained about what we are doing at the library and we watched movie trailers and Magical Trevor on the Monitor. I explained how to add the library as a bookmark and teleport at his request. As he left I welcomed him back and he said he most certainly will come back.

I also drew in some more patrons while watching Magical Trevor, because I couldn't resist the urge to dance. I know its unprofessional, but it drew attention, and I got more people in the doors for services. I had many questions about what you do in SL, especially if you don't have a paid account. I think this would be an excellent idea to share with visitors. Another thing for the Ready Ref List.

See Also: Second Life on the brain

Steve Lawson of the See Also... blog posted about his first SL Library experience last night. Since he's more of an SL n00b than I am, I was eager to hear his comments and they're all worth a read. (The post made me wish I'd actually logged in last night but I was too buy watching Bones and being sucked into a great book. Are at least one of those a good excuse?)

Vandals

Today I logged in to check on the ref desk and ask for volunteers to staff tonight. I found a cow!
At some point last night or the this morning someone had come into the library and left boxes of clothes, and other items. The good news is that they left remnants of using the Library Project Portal.
The bad news is that while deleting the items Rain accidentally deleted part of the house. She had to spend the afternoon fixing it.

First Organizational Meeting a Success

SL Library Org Meeting_018
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Last night was the first official orgizational meeting of folks willing to participate in this amazing project. More than 20 people showed up including a few non-librarians and Pathfinder Linden from Linden Labs. Pathfinder gave us a few ideas and praised our efforts. Conversation (all via txt) was brisk and very few people just lurked. The 1.5 hour meeting saw the formation of several committees (programming, services, promotion) formed and a basic governmental structure established.

A Google calendar has been set up for scheduling the reference desk and a MySpace account is in process. One other committee was formed to plan and organize a "Grand Opening" for the library. (No date at this point.)

Most all of the participants were positive in their ideas and comments. Only at the end did one person seem to imply unhappiness at our forming a "traditional library" in SecondLife but did not stick around to explain his comments.

I took several snapshots during the meeting which can be accessed through the picture accompanying this post.

All in all I was very happy with how the meeting went and even volunteered to participate on the programming committee and to staff the reference desk when I could. I'm looking forward to continuing to work on this amazing project.

Update: I forgot to mention that a Wiki will also be set up for participants.

Front page news!

It is quite an honor to grace the front cover of the latest Metaverse Messenger, one of Second Life's premier news sources. And we're front page news!



Many thanks are due to Katt Kongo for her interest in highlighting our project. My hope is that we will do enough to encourage ongoing coverage.

A very lovely day

Today was a nice day. I don't work Tuesdays, so I spent the day in SL. I logged on and was quickly greeted by some librarians that had stopped by. I chatted for most of the afternoon with passerbys and librarians. There was pretty much at least one other person in the library at all times. I don't know if I would call this busy or slow :).
For a little part of the afternoon, I decided to go try to attend a class at New Haven. I wasn't able to find a class, but I was shocked to be recognized. Many people commented that that there was that librarian. I invited them to come to the library anytime, and gave information about our blog, our location, and our flickr group.
This morning I talked with Namro Orman from the Netherlands. He is a blogger and librarian too. He was intrigued by our set-up. Later he returned when Rain was there, so thankfully she was able to answer his questions much better than I could.

The best thing that happened today was that, while joined with Rex Riel at the Reference Desk, the same two people from last night returned to the library. One of them had attended Zack's presentation, while the other was just tagging along. After looking around the building, she came inside and asked for a specific book. I was able to use World Cat to find where the book was located in her state. I do not know how helpful it really was, but she left very happy. I posted the entire conversation below, so you can see what I did wrong, and what virtual reference looks like. Update: Removed in consideration of confidentiality.


Great quote from today. in response to how he became a librarian Rex Riel said "me? Well, i love libraries, and all the good hitman jobs were taken so...."

Late Night

We had some late night visitors from Zack's program. I was surprised that I had a couple of people stop by at night (I logged in at 9:30 SL time) all looking for books. There were quite happy with the bookcase and while I was at the library I created a table of contents for the bookcase witch made it easier for people to access and not clutter their inventory with notecards. I also was able to create a little shape that would tell users when I'm online. Anyone who is going to be a SL Reference Librarian may want to do this. I did confuse many people by being on the Second Floor.
I also wanted to add that it helped me to automate gestures for working at the desk. Everytime I though someone was near I could press F2 to greet them while continuing a conversation. Zack mention something similar he used during his presentation.

Reference Desk

Hi this is Eiseldora, ER for short.

Today I spent my time making the lovely Ref Desk in the image to the right. This is no ordinary desk. Inside I have notecards with information about our library, events, and librarians.

Curious (seated next to me) wrote a script that allows the user to just touch the desk and receive the information.

I also was able to put a terminal for Project Library in the "stacks area" Since it can be confusing to access the information I wrote instructions that can be found above the terminal.

Lastly I placed a sign board next to the teleport, with information about current events and an invitation to come inside.

If you couldn't tell I like to modify things and decorate. I also have acquired many free items to use for decorating. IM me in game if you want to know where to find something, or want a specific item.

Hope to see you in SL

Organizational meeting Tuesday April 25

Here is a draft agenda and instructions for tomorrow night's Second Life Library 2.0 meeting at 6 p.m. Pacific and SL, 8 p.m. central, and 9 p.m. Eastern. Remember there is also a book discussion of the book "Norwood" at 5 p.m. Pacific, 7 central, and 8 Eastern. If you have additional items or suggestions for the agenda, please let me know and I will add them. Please let me know if you plan to attend so we know how many to expect. We will take good minutes so those who cannot attend will know what happened.

The meeting will be facilitated by Maxito Ricardo.

Agenda for Second Life Library 2.0 Meeting
Facilitated by Maxito Ricardo

Current Status and Programs
Lorelei Junot

Current building status
Rain Noonan

Desired Programs and Ideas discussion
Everyone

Desired Services discussion
Everyone

Desired hours open discussion
Everyone

Desired Collection discussion
Everyone

Publicity
Blog – Planetneutral Fackler
Article in Metaverse Messenger – Lorelei Junot
Other publicity needed

Who wants to work on what?
Everyone

9. Governance
Everyone

For voice over IP, go to the following url

http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=37f95349&p=0

type your name in and click enter. A small software applet will download to your computer as you enter the room. Minimize this screen. To talk, press the control key.

We will meet in the Second Life Library.

If you need assistance with teleporting, please IM Lorelei Junot or Rain Noonan.

Thanks, Lori

Instruction session today by Zack Mortal

Introduction to Library Research
Date: Monday, April 24, 2006
Time: 1:00PM - 1:45PM (45 minutes)
Location: Minoa (251,118)
Host: Rain Noonan
Category: Education
Cover Charge? No

Event description: This class covers the fundamentals of using real-life online library resources. We'll cover how to use library catalogs, subject headings to improve your searches; using research databases to locate articles and more. IM instructor Zack Mortal for a teleport to the Second Life Library 2.0

Presentation, Discussion, and Bookcases

Today I did a lot of work adding furniture and plants to the library. In the smaller building the roof seemed too good of a place to have presentations, so I created a space there. I learned many things from that experience, and now I have created a space I like even better than the old one. The idea is that a presenter can stand behind the podium on the middle part of the roof and people can sit where they want, moving cameras to see. At any time we can copy chairs and add more if needed, but I tried to balance prim with need.

After I had my fun with the roof I took all the chairs I had that didn't fit well into the roof layout and created a discussion room. I tried to make it all a comfortable color, but I have the feeling the roof and the room are a bit on the girly side, instead of neutral.

After decorated the rooms I decided to try my hand an making carpet, which I am thrilled to say turned out very well.

My last voyage of the evening took me to a new place I hadn't been before that had copies of book and a 1 prim bookcase. I played with the privileges and tried to allow the bookcase to contain notecard books. I am still working on the functionality, and possibly security. If nothing else we could fill the bookcase with classics and allow patrons to take what they want for free. I have a feeling that people won't go to the trouble of making the books available on the free lot when they are already free at the library. It would seem like more trouble than its worth.

Relocation

In a not-altogether-unanticipated move, Rain Noonan has traded our 2800 meter plot for a shiny new 4200 meter expanse. This gave us more room to install the larger version of the last building in use in Juanita (our old haunt). Getting the building in place was no easy task. On installation, it was facing the wrong way.



But with Rain Noonan and the unflagging assistance of Brackish Ludwig, the building was rotated into place. These shots show the process.







Of course, a building is just a building. Much credit must be given to Eiseldora Reisman, who spent much of the day decorating. Here she is showing off the rooftop picnic area.



And just a few other shots to give you some flavor (but sadly not much sense of the space as a whole).





And here's a shot of the exterior as it now appears, landscaped accordingly.



It's amazing how much dedication is being poured into this project. And we're only just beginning, so please join the fun. Go on, ask me how.

There's certainly been a great deal of interest from within the Second Life community. Visitors are already stopping by with curiosity, questions and offers of assistance. And I've heard rumors of some media coverage within the next week. Phenomenal.

On a side note, if you are not familiar with Second Life, teens have a separate "grid" or virtual world that they can (actually, they must) interact on. An effort has been initiated (thanks to Kelly Czarnecki) to provide library services within that unique space. Toward that end, Kelly has started a blog worth reading.

Another day in the (Second) Life

I've been trying to learn something about how to do all the various content creation tasks that are possible in Second Life. So yesterday I attended a morning class about creating jewelry. In the end, I came home with a shiny diamond ring. I took a few more classes including an intro to snapshots and an intro to scripting, both of which were very helpful. I highly recommend taking advantage of all of the freely available educational opportunities that await you in Second Life.

So anyway, after the morning jewelry class, it was time for my usual jaunt to the library. To my surprise, our modern-style building was gone and had been replaced by a Roman villa.



It wasn't long before the villa had become a castle.



By the end of the day, this charming building emerged as the winner.



Much work was done getting things set up, including a lovely rooftop set-up (picture by childlit2004, apologies for the darkness).



But even at that point, we were discussing a larger version of the same building, so I know that we will continue tinkering. Expect more exciting developments on both the property and building fronts soon.

Programming begins

Today was perhaps the first banner day for the Second Life Library 2.0, as we held our first in-world program. About 12 residents gathered in what has become the main meeting area to hear David King talk about bridging the gap between techies and non-techies. I was particularly excited that some of the residents in attendance were non-librarians who had seen the event listed in the Second Life events list and were curious enough to stop by. I think that alone demonstrates the potential reach that this effort can have.



Overall, the program went smoothly, as all OPAL programs do. It was enjoyable (if a little distracting) to have ongoing interaction with other avatars throughout the program. We had to explain to the non-librarians how to access the VoIP in the OPAL Auditorium. It will be interesting to see if we can bring that audio stream in-world using some of the available technologies. Same goes for the slides, although I imagine that this will be trickier.

So the activity did not stop when the program ended. There was some discussion immediately thereafter, but RL (real life) called me away. Later in the evening, the discussion was focused on the acquisiton of land and alternate concepts for our facility. We were joined by Katt Kongo of the Metaverse Messenger, who contributed some great ideas and supportive suggestions.

After so much talking and thinking, it was time to let loose, which meant a trip to The Blarney Stone in the Dublin sim, which is apparently a re-creation of the real thing. Here's a snap of three librarians on the dance floor.



A long day, but inspiring and rewarding. Much, much more to come.

Media coverage

Helene points out that BusinessWeek is featuring Second Life in its cover story. Along with the main article, there's a slideshow featuring a selection of SL residents, some with the real life pictures juxtaposed with their corresponding avatar. I'd actually read the piece earlier today and found it entertaining enough. What I didn't realize at that time is that there is also an accompanying podcast.

Pitchfork Media published an article about the live music scene in Second Life. Although not mentioned in the article, it seems a fitting prelude to tomorrow's grand opening of Menorca, a sim dedicated to live music and promoting SL musicians. Tomorrow's opening features a lengthy live concert featuring some of the biggest names in SL music. Should be a good time. The venue looks nice at least:



Image by zenigma

Virtual attendance

OPAL - Getting Along with IT Staff (36)
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

About twelve people assembled at the Second Life Library 2.0 this morning during David King's OPAL session. My snapshots can be found in my Second Life flickr set.

Reminder - Friday program!

This is just a reminder that the first ever Second Life Library 2.0 program will be taking place this Friday morning at 8 AM Pacific. Please join us in-world for this groundbreaking event.

Getting Along with IT staff for Librarians and Educators
Date: Friday, April 21, 2006
Time: 8:00AM - 9:00AM (60 minutes) Pacific time, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. central time
Location: Juanita (217,241)
Host: Rain Noonan
Category: Education
Cover Charge? No

Event description: Getting Along with IT Staff
David King, Acting ITS Director, Kansas City Public Library will be the presenter. Ever noticed that your co-workers' eyes start glazing over when you describe that custom XML app? Or, ever notice your network administrator's face start to turn red as you ask yet again for a "simple" explanation of why the Internet stopped working? This session covers the basics of how to jump communication hurdles between techies and non-technical staff. The problem is defined along with the steps to take, including what to do with jargon, how to handle training sessions, how to simplify describing a solution to non-technical staff, and how to describe technical problems and projects clearly. Gain some understanding of how techies and non-techies think and some strategies to improve communication in your work environment. This program is part of the Librarian's Continuing Education Seminar Series, sponsored by the Johnson County Library.

For voip, go to http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=67955673&p=0
type your name and click enter. Minimize window. If you do not have a microphone, you can ask questions via text chat.

Secondcast live taping tonight!

If you're curious what a Second Life in-world program might look like, there is an opportunity tonight as Secondcast, a podcast dedicated to Second Life, will be recorded live in Pooley Auditorium at Pooley (253, 1, 50). Scheduled time is 7 PM Pacific (Secondcast site says PST, but I assume that's actually PDT). For those new to the environment, official SL time is set to Pacific (Linden Lab, the company responsible for SL, is based in San Francisco), so most events seem to revolve around that.

News courtesy of The Second Life Herald.

Update: Here's what that looked like, from a distance:

Welcome to Your Second Life

Hi there. Name's Planetneutral Fackler. PF, for short. I'm all of four days old, but learning fast. Although I like to switch my style up often, here's a picture of me for your reference:



It's been an interesting first week of existence on "the grid," as the Second Life universe is generally referred. Although I signed on to satisfy my own curiosity, it did not take me long to seek out some purpose, a reason to stay in-world (another one of those terms used by "residents" to contrast with RL, or real life). And thankfully, the Second Life Library 2.0 was waiting for me.

The building itself was just about empty on my arrival, but the potential was obvious. I'd heard of some of the other programs that had taken place in-world, including an episode of Open Source with Chris Lydon. Placing the OPAL programming within that context seemed logical enough. Other possibilties are just beginning to be discussed. If you are interested in joining the discussion, please consider joining the Google group and then joining us via participation in Second Life itself. Lori will be posting details of an upcoming meeting, so stay tuned. And as she has already posted, there are a couple of programs already planned.

But even at this early stage, interesting things are already happening. I hope this blog can serve as a way to document said developments. Tonight's big success was the successful configuration of the media player. Here's a screenshot of four intelligent avatars trying to make it work (and one avatar relaxing):



Here's what the media player looks like in working form (showing the trailer for Syriana), although the full-screen option hadn't been set yet. It looks better than the screen capture suggests:



And every evening there seems to be a group of librarians turning up to socialize and find out what's new. Here's a snapshot of tonight's group:



I hope that this project will compel some new people to give Second Life a try. Toward that end, I'd like to offer my services to anyone who is entering Second Life for the first time and could use some guidance. I'm a relative newbie myself, so I can only offer a limited amount of mentoring, but a helping hand is a helping hand. So drop me a line or IM me (AIM, Yahoo) with the username planetneutral and I'll meet you there. Or find me in-world. Planetneutral Fackler's the name. But you can call me PF.

Update: Originally enormous image files have been replaced by convenient jpgs from Flickr.

Feed change

On the odd chance that you've already subscribed to the feed for this blog, please be advised that I've redirected the feed to Feedburner. Please subscribe to the new feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/secondlifelibrary. Thanks.

Programs at Second Life Library 2.0

Getting Along with IT staff for Librarians and Educators
Date: Friday, April 21, 2006
Time: 8:00AM - 9:00AM (60 minutes) Pacific time, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. central time
Location: Juanita (217,241)
Host: Rain Noonan
Category: Education
Cover Charge? No

Event description: Getting Along with IT Staff
David King, Acting ITS Director, Kansas City Public Library will be the presenter. Ever noticed that your co-workers' eyes start glazing over when you describe that custom XML app? Or, ever notice your network administrator's face start to turn red as you ask yet again for a "simple" explanation of why the Internet stopped working? This session covers the basics of how to jump communication hurdles between techies and non-technical staff. The problem is defined along with the steps to take, including what to do with jargon, how to handle training sessions, how to simplify describing a solution to non-technical staff, and how to describe technical problems and projects clearly. Gain some understanding of how techies and non-techies think and some strategies to improve communication in your work environment. This program is part of the Librarian's Continuing Education Seminar Series, sponsored by the Johnson County Library.

For voip, go to http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=67955673&p=0
type your name and click enter. Minimize window. If you do not have a microphone, you can ask questions via text chat.

Second Life Library 2.0 Book Discussion
Book Discussion
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Time: 5:00PM - 6:00PM (60 minutes) Pacific time, 7:00-8:00 p.m. central time
Location: Juanita (217,241)
Host: Rain Noonan
Category: Arts and Culture
Cover Charge? No

Event description: Book Discussion of "Norwood" by Charles Portis

Join us at the Second Life Library 2.0 for a book discussion led by Maxito Ricardo.

We will have this with audio. You need to log into the Second Life audio room at
http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=37f95349&p=0
Type your name and click enter. Minimize this window. If you do not have a microphone, you can participate via chat in the Second Life Room. You will need to be in this room the same time you are in the Second Life Library to hear the audio.

And so it begins

Welcome to the unofficial official(!) blog of the Second Life Library 2.0 Project. Much more to come...