Update for November

Tina (Alexandria), sorry you couldn't make the meeting 12/1 but you didn't miss much.

I am needing input from everybody for several projects that need to be completed before the first of the year.

Tom Hutcheson, chair of the library board, has asked us (me?) to do a demo for the Library Board. We are tentatively scheduled to do that in January. We'll only have 10 or 15 minutes, so I am hoping to put together a small packet of materials to introduce board members to SL and our project there.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for this packet of material, or points you think should be especially emphasized. I am be sending out another query to you later about this. Also, looking for ideas on what kind of demo to give. Certainly want to show them the library, but then also maybe one of the other more spectacular builds....Sistine Chapel? Louvre Art Gallery? Frank Lloyd Wright Museum? Virtual Stomach? (LOL).

Any and all comments are appreciated!

Sarah (Sadie) and I are mulling over ideas for a web page to be added to the library's web site. Let me know if you have any ideas for this.

I have been in touch with our presenter for the February Harlem Renaissance program to take place in Virtual Harlem. The program will be at 6 p.m. CST in the Indian Creek meeting room. I would sure like it if a couple of you would come...it really should be interesting. I'm hoping to promote it heavily. Let me know if you can help on this project.

I am asking each of you to be thinking about what we want to accomplish in 2010. I'd like to be able to draft something in January. Our rent will be coming up due and it would be nice to give Emily an idea of what we have planned for the coming year. Our plans should include at least one public program. We could also offer another class on SL and develop a new exhibit of some kind.

The North Carolina students have completed collecting data. I'm waiting for them to send me a copy of their final research paper.

We have three new books of interest: The Second Life Grid: the official guide to communication, collaboration and community engagement by Kimberly Rufer-Bach; Library Programs Online; possibilities and practicalities of web conferencing by Thomas A. Peters (Maxito Recardo in SL); and a pub. of ALA's Library Technology Reports, Implementing Second Life; ideas, challenges and Innovations by Joe Sanchez. All three books will either be on my desk or back in processing. Sarah has the ALA book on her desk right now.

Marilyn Johnson, (Sl name is Marilena Basilov. Not absolutely sure of the spelling) is the author of a new book, This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. The book seems to be getting some buzz (it was listed as a McNaughton lease selection this month) and she interviewed some SL librarians for it (including me...). Release date is in Feb. and we have a copy on order for the professional collection.

I want to do a Christmas party. Will get details to you when I have them.

And now for something a completely different!

Pics of two outfits I got as prizes in hunts (one of them is supposed to be based on Cirque de Soleil. Guess which one!) and a shot of our ship...did we ever name it?

News and gossip!!!

Been a ton of things going on, so settle in for a bit....

OPEN HOUSE There will be a sim-wide open house on the sim where our library is located - Cybrary City II - from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25. Hope some of you can make it. There will be dancing for sure, and probably some other surprizes along the way. I may move some things around and do a little more decorating. I am helping Rocky (who manages the sim) set it up. We will have pictures of all the projects at the central plaza...when you click on the picture it will give you a notecard explaining the project and giving you an LM. The purpose of the open house is to give us all some exposure.

STUDY = SURVEYS, FOCUS GROUP

The group of students from North Carolina University at Greensboro is progressing with their study. In coming days you will each be contacted and asked to complete a survey. Please take the time...it really does make a difference to give them a more accurate picture, and ultimately that will serve to help us as well as other libraries. They are also conducting a survey of our patrons. Patrons can complete the survey on line or pick up hard copies of the survey at the reference desk, then return it to the reference desk. Cards asking for survey participation will be posted at the computer terminals at both libraries.

AND the students will be conducting a focus group. They are looking for about 10 people, so if you know of a library user with something to say about our services you are encouraged to ask them to participate. We will have sign up sheets at the reference desks at both librarys. A date for the focus group has not been set, but it will probably be in late October. Let me know if you'd like more information about this study. It's pretty cool. The students also have suvey kiosk in the OPL SL library. They may not end up with tons of data, but it won't be for lack of trying.

GETTING WITH IT ON THE WEB!

Sarah E. and I will be working on a web page to be linked with the OPL web site. Let me know if you have any ideas or input. Obviously we need info about the OPL program, but also info about SL in general and perhaps a spot to list events etc. At some point we will want to do some photos of you all - as your alts. :)

KLA

The state library folks have asked us (us is me, Rocky and Cindy) to prepare a proposal to give a presentation (say that fast 10 times) about SL and libraries at the KLA conference in April. Like to be in on it? Give me a holler.

SORT OF RELATED

The Public Libraries in Second Life group met on Sunday, Oct. 18, at the SL library. You all have a standing invitation to join the group. Let me know if you want more info. We are hashing around ideas for activities and projects. You can join the group without being committed to spending time on it (unless, of course, you get roped into being on a committee. Perhaps you want to wear a disguise?)

AND NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF

Pictures taken below at several live events in the past couple of weeks. I had text to accompany each of these pictures, but in the process of editing somehow deleted the text and and too fed up to write it over again! So ask if you want explanation in the meantime I will make and effort to get more skilled with Blogger.

Hi, I'm back......

Multiple issues squeezed updating of this blog to the bottom of my to do list, but recent developments require I become more disciplined about posting.....I have actual news to report!
*Hyen has been working on a PIRATE SHIP to serve as our skybox for meeting and hanging out. I will take a picture and post it here...it is very, very cool. You will probably want to create a landmark for it. It is directly above the library, but so high you will have to have some form of flight assist to get there. Contact me for a flight feather.
*Anastasia is working on children's resources to be house in the little cottage-like building to the side of the library. Might need to look at moving the building a bit to make sure we have room for programs.
*I have been removing and/or changing furniture to save us some prims so we can use them for the skybox and other projects. You can check to see how many prims we have available on the parcel by going to the top of the screen, click on the bar that shows location, and click on the tab for "objects."
*We (our SL project) are being studied by two graduate programs. Elliott Nansen (I think that is her name) is a doctoral student in Great Britain studying public libraries in SL. And the same class from the University of North Carolina that studied us last year is back for a more in-depth study. I have a print out of the project proposal...it is very extensive. So you may be hearing from some of these folks, or see them around. You will be asked to complete a survey for them. This is VERY important so please take the time. I don't have SL names for all of the five students and professor who will be working with us....you will likely be hearing from Anamae Rae (Pamela Chappell in RL) as head of a part of the project. And you may have remember Zip (Marilyn Zamarripa) from last time.
This project proposal makes for interesting and enlightening reading. Emily and I met with the professor and Pamela via conference call this week to discuss things. It is rather exciting. They are hoping to publish the completed study.
Alex, I will forward the email with the study link to you...it's quite a few pages or I would send you a copy.
*PARTY!!!! Bucky Barkley and I are trying to get together on a plan for a sim-wide open house. Plans will be posted here. This is a chance to show off our project.
*I have installed a survey kiosk in the library. Response hasn't been terrific, but I think I have 4 so far. I am keeping a record of the responses on line, let me know if you want to see it.
*I think you are all on the Google list for notices from the Alliance Virtual Library. Try to take time to skim those posts. The Alliance system is stepping back from its previous role as owner of the library sims, and turning those reponsiblities over to a non-profit (Community Virtual Library) over seen by Abbey Zenith, Rocky Vallejo and Hypatia Dejavu. See me if you want more info on these changes.
THATS ALL FOR NOW! NEXT MEETING OCT. 6 IN THE COMPTON BOARD ROOM!

Call for volunteers!

I have cut and pasted from the Alliance Library web post on this Library Career Fair and Library Fair. I have registered us for a booth. Technically I am on vacation that weekend, but it would be nice to have the booth staffed as much as possible. I will plan to spend some time there, but I am looking for volunteers who will commit to stopping by our booth for a bit on that weekend. Not asking for you to sign up for specific shifts, just to let me know if you are willing to spend some time there as your schedule allows. ALSO, is anyone interested in helping design and build the booth? Could be fun...Hyen, wanna try your hand at building? Ana, like to do some design? Tina? Anybody? LOL

Library Career Fair & Library Fair - May 8th & 9th 2009!

Announcing the First Second Life Library Career Fair & Library Fair, Sponsored by Alliance Virtual Library!

If you visited the College Fair or the Tech Fair last year, you will have an idea of the excitement and buzz around an in-world conference like this. It is a chance to meet peers and network, a chance to show off what your library is doing in Second Life, a chance to present, and with the inclusion of the Library Career Fair – it is a chance to make library job openings known and meet with job seekers and LIS students!

The Library Career Fair, May 8th, is being managed by the LIS Student Union under Adra Letov and DaisyBlue Hefferman. The Career Fair events will include: Orientations for new avatars (librarians, students, and staff), an LIS Career Resource Center with links to global job postings, speakers on survival skills for getting a job in a bad economy, resume tune-up, and what employers are looking for in today’s media-rich Web 2.0 information environments. If you are interested in posting positions or working with the Career Fair in some way, please contact Diane Nahl, SL: Adra Letov, at nahl@hawaii.edu.

The Library Fair, May 8th & 9th, will be in full operation during the career fair, speakers for the Library Fair will be scheduled for Saturday, May 9th. Each exhibitor for the Library Fair portion of this conference will receive a 10 x 10 area on which they can build a booth. This is your chance to be creative and let everyone know the great things you are doing in Second Life.

Exhibiting is free, but we are happy to accept donations to Alliance Virtual Library for sponsoring this event.

Each booth will be limited to 100 prims and we ask that scripting be kept to a minimum to help prevent lag. If you need your booth parceled off for sound or video we will be glad to do that as well. Booths can be set up May 3rd through the 7th. With the opening of the Library Career Fair, exhibits will open to the public.

We have a full sim for this event and would love to have as many real life libraries operating in SL as possible involved. This is a wonderful opportunity to network and learn from each other. Please indicate if you are interested in presenting on May 9th and we will get in touch with you to set up a time. Please contact: Abbey Zenith (abbeyzen@gmail.com) with any questions.

Please register to exhibit at the Library Fair by using this form and indicate if you would like to speak:

fun stuff first.....

I have a Flickr account now to store images from SL. You can find them at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeorie/
Among them you will find my very first SL photo, and a VERY geeky looking newbie I was!
In the process of uploading all those photos I used up my free allotment for the month, so here will post some photos from the latest Alliance Virtual Library party. Abbey Zenith and AVL put on a party every month for the AVL volunteers (and friends). The party is always a theme, and Abbey always does an exceptional job building a temporary venue. We also usually have Gabrielle Riel, one of the premiere SL DJs and a good friend to the library folks, with access to a wide ranging music library of more than 30,000 titles.

The theme this month was Arabian Nights...Gabi did a superlative job of playing both traditional and pop Middle Eastern music. Winners of the monthly costume contest were Rolig (not pictured) for the women and ROCKY for the men....he was dressed as Sinbad the Sailor. Rocky is pictured above, and next to him in the two piece outfit is the lovely Cindy. Pictured at left is Holly, who was just stunning and wearing the perfect outfit for belly dancing. Below are just two more interesting costumes...on the left Timo, who arrived with Galia on a flying carpet that send most of dancers flying (!) and on the right Waldron, who is ALWAYS some form of blue:














And now the not as fun stuff....
All of you, and your supervisors, have received (and hopefully completed) the survey from the North Carolina library science management class. I'll let you know when we get the results from the survey. There is a chance someone will take this on for followup next term as an independent study of libraries in SL.

I think you all know about it, but just for the record, Ralph will be presenting his bit for a KLA/MLA session on Friday morning from SL, with Angela's assistance on the Wichita end. This is pretty exciting. Lets hope all the technology works the way it is supposed too. I can't remember the exact time...10 a.m. I think...but if any of you would like to join us in SL for Ralph's presentation just let me know. I'll put some seating out and he will be using the slider outside the library, similar to the layout for the Nicodemus program.

Nicodemus program great!

The Nicodemus program was great and we had a total of 15 attendees....3 for the RL program and 11 for the program in SL this Sunday. I learned some great stuff again this time.
*For programs we need someone assigned to greet latecomers and give them a welcoming notecard with any special instructions, like "turn off your microphone to avoid feedback" or "hold questions until the end."
*GET OFF THE STAGE! Shortly after Dakota started someone IMed me for a teleport, so I sent one...which of course landed them ON the stage.
*Do a thorough search of groups/sims/individuals with an expressed interest in the topic, then send out notecards with the information.

One of those who attended is a woman I previously met in a class, and who has a specific interest in African American history. I'm glad she and Dakota were able to meet, and they are already brainstorming ideas, including having Dakota give the same Nicodemus presentation at Virtual Harlem, and forming a new group for those with an interest in African American history. So our SL branch IS having a positive effect!

BTW, the audience Sunday donated $2,390 Lindens (about $8.50 US) to the Nicodemus Pioneers, so Dakota and Nicodemus have a nest egg to get their SL project off to a good start.

Picture at left is HollyJean at the monthly Alliance Virtual Library party...theme, Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss. Saw some great costumes there.

Projects in the works:
*WE NEED PHOTOS!!! Now that you all know how to make a poster and upload images (let me know if you need a refresher) its time to GET OUT THERE AND GET SOME PHOTOS! Either existing ones, or take new ones.
*Skytales Book Discussion will focus on the YA novel Twilight. Date will be Thursday, March 26, but we don't have a time set yet. In the evening some time. If you would like to be involved let me know. Otherwise, all are welcome to attend. It will be in the meeting room at Rachelville. Hoping to gear the discussion toward why vampires are so attractive to the kids, how that can be used to lure reluctant readers, and a list of readalikes. I'll be trying to find someone to make the presentation and lead the discussion. Tasmine, if you are interested in this let me know. I promised Rocky Cindy and I would do all the work for this one, since he is tied up with teaching a class. Of course, I haven't told Cindy that yet. Ha ha. :)

*Possible book discussion at the library. This is a return to an old topic....trying to get a cooperative project going with the state library and Topeka for an author talk or something. We are tentatively looking at The Virgin of Small Plains, but I know the author is swamped right now with appearances. Might just do it as a book discussion. I'm certainly open to ideas.

Ok, so the mule naming idea was a bust. Can't blame me for trying. :)

On a personal note, my home parcel was struck by a griefer sometime in the past week or so....not sure when it happened. Apparently the same person or persons hit several other parcels in the area. They changed the terrain around and somehow managed to take or delete about 90 percent of the things I had out.....furniture, plants, all kinds of objects. Sophie helped me set the property back to more or less the way it was and I have filed a support ticket with Linden Labs. Sophie (sim owner) showed me how they were able to change the terrain and how to change my settings so that can't happen inthe future, but she is at a loss as to how they managed to steal or destroy my objects. Sigh. There are those few troublemakers no matter where you are....the real life library or SL.

site setup for the Nicodemus program

Here are some pictures I took today after finishing (I hope!) the set up for the Nicodemus program (Saturday, 2 p.m. CST, 4 p.m. SLT).

Couldn't resist those adorable draft mules....so, LETS HAVE A CONTEST (amongst us....)

Name the Mule Contest: Step 1, submit names to me via email. I will post on blog; Step 2, vote for your favorite name. Creator of winning name will receive $100L! Contest will run until it ends.....

Celebrate Kansas Party a Great Success!

Our belated Kansas Day celebration on Saturday night was a HUGE success. I'll check with Rocky to see if he has a final head count, but about 30 people came and while the majority were our friends from library land, there were at least a half dozen who came just because we billed it as a Kansas event!

Rocky, Cindy and I joined forces to pull the thing together with relatively little planning, but it all seemed to work. We used the vacant yard space on the north side of the Olathe building. I made the sunflower dance floor, Rocky and Cindy contributed photos of Kansas and famous Kansans as well as a wonderful buffet table and Cindy and I worked on the layout of the party area. Throughout the evening (started at 6 p.m. SLT and the last person left about 8 p.m. SLT) people were encouraged to visit all three library buildings and they were surrounded on all sides by reminders of all things Kansas. Wouldn't be surprised if this becomes an annual event.

future projects and photos!

At left, Brian is doing the hoochey coochey for me and a friend on the roof terrace of the new building.

I took a ton of pictures of the new place but won't post so many here as I think you have all had a chance to visit it. You should all have LMs to the new location....you can delete the one in your inventory that lists Olathe at Talis...we are now at Cybrary City II.

Thank BrianA when you see him...he installed our people counter free of charge.

PHOTOS!!!
Rather than hunt up good pictures to post int he library, how about if we all take turns taking photos with the digital camera? Somebody (me? Hyen? All of us?) will need to learn how to upload them to a hard drive. Next meeting I will teach you all how to upload a texture to SL and h ow to put a texture on a prim. So keep in mind what photos you would like to use that would be representive of us in RL.

FAME AND FORTUNE....
There is a story about our move in RezLibris (http://www.rezlibris.com)

PARTY LIKE A KANSAN!
Rocky, Cindy and I are trying to get a Kansas Day party organized. It would have to be the weekend before Kansas Dayl, as Rocky starts teaching (cataloging) at Emporia the weekend of Kansas Day. So I figure it will be the weekend of Jan. 24. Let me know if you have any ideas for the party. Of course there will be dancing, and someone is making us balloons with sunflowers on them that we can give away. The state library will pay for the balloons. This would be a chance to show off our new buildings etc.

NICODEMUS
The director of the Nicodemus Historical Society will be moving onto Cybrary City II with a Nicodemus build. I am looking into the possibility of getting him or her (not sure about that yet!) to give a Black History Month program for us like we did for Christmas, although this one would be entirely from SL, projected onto a screen at ICB. I'll keep you updated.

NEW TOYS!
I have installed a bulletin board that allows anyone to leave us a message that we can click on and read later. All of you who are members of the Olathe group also have permission to delete messages. Delete by clicking on the message, click on "more" and then "delete." I also installed a pager for myself, and you are welcome to install pagers for yourselves if you decide you want to at some point. It will contact me if I am in world but not at the library. I'm still looking for one that will send me an email. The pager object will also accept notecards. There are teleporters installed for the rooftop areas to the north and south. And on the north roof there is (besides a pink dance ball!) a widescreen TV. Hyen is looking into posting a library video there.
Jukeboxes on the new land are problematic. You can all go to about land, media, and cut and paste in URLs for your favorite music streams. I'll show you more about this when we next meet, or ask me to show you how to do it. Not hard. As soon as I have time I'll give you all notecards with music URLs you can use for different kinds of music.

EXPERIMENT!
You all have the necessary permissions to build on the new parcel so knock yourself out. experiment all you want, just clean up your mess by taking items into your inventory or deleting them. Let me know if you have some additions/modifications you would like to make permanent.....I've been playing aroundwith a flower garden at the back of the building. If we end up needing the prims I can delete all those plants etc. Right now we have about 234 prims remaining to play with.

NEXT MEETING
Need to schedule. Let me know what works for you.....

Readings for Christmas on the Prairie

I am going to read an excerpt from A Little House Sampler edited by William T. Anderson. It's a collection of writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane. The piece I am reading is called "Home for Christmas" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I also found a piece by Harriet E. Adams within Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier by Joanna Stratton. Harriet's father, Franklin G. Adams, was the first secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society.

I timed the Laura piece at about 6:30 minutes. The Harriet Adams piece is about 5:30 minutes.

I also have four other little excerpts which also come from Pioneer Women that are about 1 minute in length each.

Now, to find the perfect hair!

Program plans!

Photo is of me at work on the library. Stop by when you get a chance....spent much of the weekend working on it. I've added a slideshow that is now located on teh wall over the windows.
Here's the scoop:
*Site director for the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop will be in this week with some additional material for readings. If you haven't seen anything you want to read yet, we can get some more stuff from him. I need for you all to time your readings and let me know approximately how long they are.
*I am working on a "script" introduction.
*This weekend I made a poster for posting around SL...it has an imbeded notecard with more details about the program. The program has been posted on the librarians' google calendar of events and is posted at the reference desk in SL. I'll be asking for notices to go out to groups shortly before we start on the 16th.
*Daisyblue Hefferman gave us a little pot that gives out free hot chocolate. This saved us a little money and a LOT of prims, so if you see her it would be nice to thank her.
*I have arranged the room with stools for the readers to sit on. I also have a "reading to an audience" poseball if you want to use it. I'm trying to set it up so the readers have to move as little as possible, but I need you ALL to take time to visit the library and try and the stools and give me any feedback...now is the time to speak up if you have preferences or concerns.
*my preference would be to meet with each of you individually for just a few minutes to go over the program generally and check out your headsets and sound set up, and then meet as a group either this week or next week for an abbreviated run through. Once I know who is reading what I'll make up an order for the readings.
*I've given you all $300 Lindens to spend on period clothing. Tina and I got some nice dresses from the vendors at Deadwood. Remind me to give you a landmark for Deadwood, or you can do a search for it.

New ideas and staff day presentation

The picture at left is intended to put you in the mood to think about a holiday season programming idea....Ana (Stacy) suggested we try a readers theatre type presentation, and in the process of thinking about that I had an inspiration! (sort of). To keep our program somehow unique and identifiable as a Kansas/Olathe endeavor, how about if we do readings but use some of the real life text left as diaries and memoirs of early Kansas settlers? You can find a ton of this type of material at http://www.kancoll.org/index.php, the Kansas collection of Carrie:an electronic library, which is the digital library created by the University of Kansas. We might want to collaborate with the state library and Topeka on this. We could decorate to our hearts desire in the library, or take it to the colleseum to accomodate more people (although I thi nk we could get a pretty good crowd seated at our own library.) Give it some thought. I talked to Ralph about it and he might even come in world to help out as a reader! I will be emailing you all a sample collection of potential readings.

We are set I think for staff day. We only have a half hour, so there isn't a whole lot we can do with it. I will take about 10 minutes to go through the power point Tina did, then we will introduce ourselves and tour the library, leave a few minutes for Q and A. I would like all of us to be in world if possible, and I think we can do that. You will just have to find a terminal with Sl on it in the library. I will ask that you all wait outside the library and then when I say your name come inside, OK? at the end we can all dance to show them how much fun it can be. If that is ok with everyone. Does this sound ok?

Tonight I started my in-world class, offered through the Univeristy of Illinois library school. Class is every Wednesday night for five weeks, and it is called "Setting Up Your Library in Second Life: an Appliled Approach." This is going to be a truely excellent class. I will have some notes and other stuff and can send you copies via email if you want. Let me know if you would like a copy.

Tallyho!

Idea for Staff Day Presentation

It might be fun to make a game out the presentation. If Lori introduces us and we introduce ourselves from in-world, we could not give our real name, just our avie name. Then we can each talk about what we have been doing in SL. At the end of the presentation, staff can try to figure out who is who, since we haven't told them our real names and we are not in the room. We might want to give out small prizes to whoever can figure it out. Don't have the logistics figured out yet, but thought it sounded like a fun idea.

Leeorie asked me to post some pictures and the only one I have is this old one of me (now i'm a little less....um.....tan). I'll try to come up with something better in the future.

-Ana, aka Stacey

Book discussion; meeting; workshop

Mark your calendars! The inaugural Skytales Book Discussion will be at 4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m. CST) on Oct. 18 at Rachelville. This is a collaborative project with Rocky and Cindy. We will be discussing two picture books that deal with gender issues, and both are controversial - And Tango Makes Three and Uncle Bobby's Wedding. We are hoping for a good crowd and a lively discussion. Stacy (Anastazia in SL) has been helping out with this. The photo shows the sign Rocky came up with....hoping to see it posted around. I put a copy in the OPL library at Talis, and it is also on the events slide show at the reference desk on Info Island.

Don't forget the meeting 10 to 12 on Wednesday, Oct. 15. Stacy and I will be participating from in-world since we will both be at home at the time. Major agenda item will be the staff day presentation....Emily has asked us to show SL. We may not have more than 1/2 hour. What do we want to do? Looking for ideas.

BIG NEWS!!! KCMLIN has asked me to do a workshop on Second Life, tentative date April 28! All who want to help out let me know. We may be doing a full day to let participants set up accounts it they want. KCMLIN is the metro area library association, including both Kansas City library systems, Mid Continent and Johnson County, so this is quite a feather in our caps! I've asked Rocky to help out and he will, circumstances permitting. I'll also be asking Cindy to help, and I'd like to get as many of you involved as possible. I will probably also be seeking input from Abbey Zenith and Lori Junot from the Alliance System in SL. Don't know where the workshop location will be yet. Would be great to have it in Olathe but we probably don't have space.

A REMINDER: you are all invited to comment AND POST to the blog! If you need help let me know. You can experiment with taking and posting pictures. I would LOVE to see some images of someone besides myself! I think you all have permissions to post and publish, but if not I will try and figure it out and fix it.

Later my sweet little avatars!

Update and meeting!

FLASH! Two new objects at the OPL library....on the left is the "reference" kiosk. This is an LM and TP to the reference desk on Info Island. Its part of the Alliance Library System project to provide reference services as close as possible to 24/7 for all libraries that want such service, since none of us is able to provide such service on our own. Its a collaborative project. We help out by my volunteering for a ref. shift every Monday morning. If you would like to volunteer for a ref shift, just let me know and I'll direct you to the right contact.

On the right is an info kiosk for the islands in the Aliance Virtual Library group, with information about AVL. There are LMs to each of the islands in the group.

PLEASE take time to get familiar with these resources, for you own benefit and to assist anyone who may ask about them. Both are provided to us free of charge, by the way.

Stacy/Anastazia and I will be helping with a book disucssion at 4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m. CST) Oct. 18 at Rachelville. The discussion is part of Skytales Book Discussions, created in collaboration with Rocky and Cindy, to discuss children's literature. I think this will be a really fun and interesting series, and its open to all. Thanks Ana for helping with this!

SO when do we meet? Let's shoot for sometime in the first half of October. Please post your optimum times/days as a comment to the blog. We'll compare each others availability and come up with something. Since some of you haven't been there, maybe we can have the meeting this time in the garden at my house? (music and dancing provided!)

Thanks all! See you later inworld or out!

Update

Here I am in my new astronaut suit...pretty cool huh? I got it for an Allilance Virtual Library dance with a "future" theme, then got stuck in a meeting and didn't get there until the dance was over. So I just hung out in the suit for a while.

Still struggling with finding a meeting date. I'm on vacation and will be back at work on Wednesday, Sept. 17. Stacy/Anastazia and I met with Bill/Rocky about the Skytales childrens' literature discussion program and we have several tasks to do in connection with that. If you'd like to get involved get with Stacy or with me. We'll be able to post a sign and notecard at the OPL SL library to promote it, so it is related to OPL's SL project.

Still no word on the author project. Rocky's been swamped and we are still launching the children's book discussion series so I'm not pushing it real hard right now, but will try to meet with Rocky and Cindy in late Oct. to see what our next move will be.

Don't forget to check your Google list to keep updated on SL news and activities. You can also check in on the Metaverse Messenger, that's the SL newspaper the libraries use the most for publicity and it's available free on line.

Tina/Alexandria is putting together a power point for our SL program at the end of the month. All of you are welcome to participate in that program if you want. A short power point will be followed by in world touring. We'll be using a projector at the ICB meeting room.

More later. Have fun in world!

Next meeting.....

Below is another just for fun photo....exploring the new classical music sim with Rocky and HollyJean.

We need to set up another meeting date and time....do you want to shoot for a Tuesday again? I know we have all been swamped with one thing or another, and I am on vacation the first two weeks in September (darn! Missing Old Settlers AGAIN! :( ....) So how about Tuesday Sept. 23? From 10 a.m. to noon? We may have to futz around with meeting times and dates with all the scheduling changes.

Also, heads up, Stacy is joining us. Her in world name is Anastasia Bookmite, so if you get a friend invite from someone by that name you could probably safely accept :) I'm meeting with Stacy for a bit this week privately to bring her up to speed.

Quick update....still awaiting word from Hoy re: book talk in Second Life. We may end up having to find a different author. I'm open to suggestions....I know Ralph has been reading a new book by a Kansas author about sustainable agriculture, so that is a possibility.

In the meantime, I am working with Rocky and Cindy on a series of discussions of children's literature and we are starting out with two picture books that address gender roles: "And Tango Makes Three" and "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." If you would like to get involved in this project let me know.

ALSO if you have a hankering for some in-world activities, let me know and I will help coordinate. There are all sorts of classes and book discussions all the the time...it's just a matter of knowing where and when. And of course I'm still looking for ideas for displays/exhibits/digital collections for our library!

Open house final report

Sorry I didn't get any pictures at the open house...I was a little nervous cause I was responsible for the introductions etc. Sara was able to come, and I'm guessing there may have been 15 people there...a smaller turnout than I had expected, but it was our first time for this event. The presentations were extremely interesting and I learned a lot about our neighbors on Talis. Our sim manager Teo arranged for a DJ for danceing after the program. Here is the final text I used for the presentation about our project:


My Second Life name is Leeorie Alter and in real life I am a reference librarian in the adult services department of Olathe Public Library. We are a mid-sized library in a metro area just outside Kansas City in the U.S., and those of us on the adult services staff do a little bit of everything, including collection development and maintenance and programming as well as staffing the reference desk.
I became interested in SL a little over a year ago after reading about it and became even more intrigued after hearing about how libraries were becoming active here. Initially I came in just to look around, with hopes that my library might eventually be interested in an SL presence. But when spots became available on the new Talis Cybrary Island sim, I took the chance my library would eventually back me up and committed us to a project here. In May we received formal backing from my library to experiment with this project and established a committee.
Members of this committee are myself, Sadie Ecksol (who in real life is our Library Specialist for Electronic Resources); Hyen Lowe, who is our Support Services Tech Extradonaire, adult services librarian Alexandria Gumbo; young adult librarian Tasmine Andel; children’s librarian Anastasia Bookmite; and Mary Linse, support services supervisor.
It is still a work in progress. Like so many others, we are inventing what library services mean in a virtual environment……particularly for public libraries. While we explore what is possible in Second Life, we are also offering interested staff members a chance to explore the possibilities and enjoy the richness of the network possibilities. Our most exciting project to date is a collaboration with the State Library of Kansas and the Topeka-Shawnee County Kansas public library to bring a Kansas author into Second Life for a program. We hope to have that program this fall, along with related exhibits at the library here on Talis, where you will also find information about the real life Olathe Public Library as well as links to our catalog and additional information about the community.
We hope you will take time to visit us and take a look around. I would be happy to answer questions during the break.

Text of open house presentation

Here is the text of the presentation I'll be giving at the open house on Sunday. Please leave comments or email me with suggested revisions, changes etc.

"My Second Life name is Leeorie Alter and in real life I am a reference librarian in the adult services department of Olathe Public Library. We are a mid-sized library, and those of us on the adult services staff do a little bit of everything, including collection development and maintenance and programming as well as staffing the reference desk.

I became interested in SL a little over a year ago after reading about it and became even more intrigued after hearing about how libraries were becoming active here. Initially I came in just to look around, with hopes that my library might eventually be interested in an SL presence. But when spots became available on the new Talis Cybrary Island sim, I took the chance my library would eventually back me up and committed us to a project here. In May I received formal backing from my library to experiment with this project.

It is still a work in progress. Like so many others, we are inventing what library services mean in a virtual environment……particularly for public libraries. While we explore what is possible in Second Life, we are also offering interested staff members a chance to explore the possibilities and enjoy the richness of the network possibilities. Our most exciting project to date is a collaboration with the State Library of Kansas and the Topeka-Shawnee County Kansas public library to bring a Kansas author into Second Life for a program. We hope to have that program this fall, along with related exhibits at the library here on Talis, where you will also find information about the real life Olathe Public Library as well as links to our catalog and additional information about the community.

We hope you will take time to visit us and take a look around. I would be happy to answer questions during the break.

Open house plans

Open house on Talis sim (including the OPL building) will begin at 4 p.m. SLT (6 p.m. our time) on Wednesday, Aug. 13. All residents of the island, including US, will give short presentations at the colleseum, followed by a half hour break from 6 to 6:30 SLT (8 to 8:30 our time) for tours and ending with dancing beginning at 7 p.m SLT (9 p.m. our time).

Please try to be there at least for the presentation part of it. I would think you could count this as work time. I'll present for our library but it would be really nice to introduce you all, and the presentations should be really interesting. some of the presentations may be in voice (including ours) so be sure and have your headphones handy. If you don't have SL at home, maybe you could take a laptop home with you? I will be setting up here in the board room if anyone would like to join me there.