Reference Services Review - Esther Grassian on Second Life

Grassian, E., & Trueman, R. (2007). Stumbling, bumbling, teleporting and flying … librarian avatars in Second Life. Reference Services Review, 35(1), 84-89. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://proxy.lib.wayne.edu:2436/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/2400350106.html.

This paper by Esther Grassian (UCLA) and Rhonda Trueman (Johnson & Wales) takes the form of questions and answers to provide an overview of the benefits and challenges for libraries in Second Life.

At NMC this week: EDUCAUSE Focus Session on Immersive Learning Environments

This session is taking place in real life in Raleigh, North Carolina, and will be streamed into Second Life at the NMC Campus. If you can only catch one session, I'd recommend the 10:15 (1:15 EST) session with Sarah Robbins (Intellagirl).

Tuesday 3/27 -
11am to 12pm (SLT)
Generation G and the 21st Century
Richard Van Eyk (University of North Dakota)

3/28 -
5 to 5:45am (SLT)
Cognition, Learning, and Literacy in Virtual Worlds, Constance Steinkuehler (U of Wisconsin-Madison)

6:00 am - 6:45am (SLT) Cyberinfrastructure-enabled Learning Environments for Gen-Z, Gary Bertoline (Purdue)

7:45 - 8:30am Virtual Learning Environments in 3D, Phil Long (MIT)

10:10 - 10:55 (tentative): Immersion and Engagement in a Virtual Classroom: Using Second Life for Higher Education, Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins (Ball State)

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm The Bar May Not Be As High As You Expect: Considerations in Implementing an Immersive Learning Environment

More information is available at the NMC Campus Observer blog.

Info Island this week

Last week, Kitty Pope, Director of the Alliance Library System, announced that the ALA has given it the Information Today Inc. Library of the Future Award.

Tuesday 3/27 -
8am SLT (11 am EST) -
NO-CONCEPT CLASS: BUILDING
at Eduisland 2

Thursday
3/29 -

8am SLT: Info Island Tour by Jilliana Susei - meet at the Welcome Area

6pm SLT
Discussion: Catch the Librarian Buzz
Discussion of services and programs for teens at Eye4You - location to be announced
There is also a discussion here about the new Eye4You Alliance Island, and what it will have to offer.

InfoIsland

American Libraries Online: Internet Librarian says Second Life needs libraries

Joseph Janes suggests that librarians should be involved not just in collecting, organizing and cataloging objects in SL, but also "part of the conversation about what those objects are and do and ought to be."
Like everyplace else, Second Life needs libraries
By Joseph Janes
American Libraries Columnist

Information Week Article: A look at the technology

This article describes what happens under the hood, as well as how Linden Lab is planning to handle hundreds of times the traffic.

Inside Second Life's Data Centers
As Second Life strains to keep up with recent popularity, InformationWeek looks at the real-world technology foundations of the make-believe world, and developer Linden Lab's plans to stay on top of growth.
Mitch Wagner InformationWeek
March 5, 2007

Even while Second Life struggles with its explosive growth and new popularity, the developers of the service, Linden Lab, are redesigning the service to handle hundreds of times as much traffic as it's dealing with today.

Second Life is seeing 20% monthly growth in the number of concurrent users, going from a then-record 18,000 users logged in at once in December to a record 36,000 on Sunday. The maximum capacity of the current network is 100,000 simultaneous users, Miller said. (the rest)

Lansing State Journal article on Second Life

My own home town paper did a nice article on Second Life today that mentions the Michigan Library Consortium among local users and entrepreneurs. And, refreshingly, not one mention of SL porn, Anshe Chung, or Prokofy Neva.
Second Life bring virtual, real life together
Barbara Wieland
March 8, 2007

IT Week article: David Tebbutt, Information World Review

This article has several paragraphs on the Second Life library.

"Is Second Life a brave new world?

A playground for geeks but an irrelevance for information professionals? You couldn't be more wrong about Second Life. David Tebbut explains the very real benefits of virtual reality."

05 Mar 2007