… the online home of a librarian in Perth, Western Australia
I had a great time at the party! I even feel almost hungover this morning - must be the fact that Baubles the Cat kept trying to wake me up, starting from 3am all the virtual beer and vodka Paradoxa imbibed during the evening.
More pictures and comment at virtual lint.
My colleague partner in crime friend and fellow blogger Kathryn Greenhill has just launched a new blog: Virtual librariesinteract.info (vlint for short). If you’ve been reading our lint blog, you will have noticed that a few of us have been exploring Second Life (see, for example: Christmas party!, and the news about our building in Second Life). Kathryn decided (and rightly so, I think) that it would be a good idea to hive off the majority of SL posts to a separate blog, and so, in her ’spare’ time has put installed and put together this blog for discussion and sharing information on Australian library folks’* adventures in SL.
As Kathryn points out on her blog, snail (fellow linter) made the brilliant suggestion that we could broaden it so that we’re not only blogging about Second Life: we can use vlint to blog about “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.”
Anyone want to blog about WoW, or EQ, and the impact of the gaming experience on library users’ expectations of library interfaces, perhaps? How about the different experiences of PvE and PvP players and their expectations when interacting with each other in-game and in Real Life… and in libraries? (Okay, I’m stretching it a bit here. But next time I log on I might have to analyse my reactions to finding information about a difficult quest, and observe how players ask for help or information…)
*library folks because I’m trying to be inclusive of all - librarians, library technicians, IT people - anyone who works in a library, really.
Just posted this message on WAIN, our local West Australian libraries email list, and thought I might post it here too - consider yourself invited whether or not you’re in Australia! (Ivan, are you able to drop by?)
Library supporters are welcome too - you don’t have to be a library worker! We’d love to see you!
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Virtual end of year party for Australian Libraries in Second Life.
The Australian libraries blog, librariesinteract.info, is hosting an end-of year party in Second Life on 13th December, 6pm to 8pm Western Australian time. [This is 1am San Francisco time; San Francisco time also being Second Life time.]
Second Life is a virtual world, with a population of over 1 million, in which large companies, schools and universities (IBM, Dell, Harvard) have set up shop. Reuters newsagency has its own correspondent there. According to a September 2006 Popular Science article, Second Life, through currency trading, shopping and land sales, has a GDP of $64 Million. Recently, Australian Libraries were given a free building for a year on Cybrary City, courtesy of Talis and the Alliance Library System in return for 2 hours per week work on library services for SL residents.
The party will include a tour of Info Island and Info Island II by Lori Bell from Alliance Library Systems. We will follow the yellow brick road from the Oz library to the Kansas State Library Virtual Branch next door. Then, back to our building to hang out… dance on the dance floor, snare some cyber snacks, and go easy on the virtual alcoholic beverages.
You can join in virtually from your own PC, or come and look over our shoulders in real life. If you join in virtually, it would be a good idea to check out Second Life before the event:
1. Go to the Second Life website.
2. Check the systems requirements.
3. Go to the join up page and choose one of the family names offered..and make up your first name.
4. You will be asked for your credit card details, but do not have to give them.
5. Download the Second Life client to your PC.
6. Choose how you’d like your avatar (representation in SL) to look.
7. Enter…explore.
8. Teleport to just outside our building at: 207, 68, 23. (Often passersby can help you out to do this) Alternatively, we can teleport you to our building, if you send a message.
For further details, please contact Con Wiebrands (flexnib at gmail dot com) or Kathryn Greenhill (sirexkat at gmail dot com). If you are already exploring Second Life and would like to meet up, our SL names are Paradoxa Kurrajong (Con) and Emerald Dumont (Kathryn) - feel free to IM us!
Hope to see you on Info Island!
Kathryn and Con
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I also posted an invite a few days ago, on lint. I’m quite amused at how many comments it’s generated. Obviously people are interested in SL!
I’m really looking forward to catching up with Emerald Dumont, Hypatia Arcadia, snail Voskhod, Midjen Zauberflote and Curious Forager… (what quaint names we all have - says Paradoxa Kurrajong!)
