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2	Why Virtual Worlds and Interaction in Libraries?
3	Killing Monsters
4	Everything Bad is Good for You
5	Definitions Technique Technology Community Library Culture Artifacts Literacy
6	Virtual World Environments: WoW
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8	Virtual World Environments: Second Life
9	Elements of the Puzzle Media and virtual artifact creation Engaging activities in and around the culture of virtual worlds and interactive media that develop a community or set of communities Use that culture and those communities to build in learning opportunities, knowledge and partnerships
10	Media and virtual artifacts Digital photography Video and film creation Animated film creation Digital story creation MySpace, Second Life, IMVU play, social interaction, avatars, personae
11	Engaging activities Film festivals Gaming tournaments Gaming Clubs or user groups Open Gaming events, Cons Game Designer/developer interaction - similar to author interactions Etc.
12	Learning Opportunities Story based program development and creation Film/video creation Interactive media/game creation on an introductory level Game design festivals to show work Digital Arts & Technology type of festivals to show work and create community on a larger scale
13	Keys to the whole picture Learning is structured within a play/leisure type of environment Competition is good Interaction with Youth is key A focus on developing our environments as places to interact and create rather than just storehouses of stuff that they come to consume.
14	The Second Life Launch Graphic
15	What is Second Life? A 3-d virtual reality world 2 sites: adult Second Life and Teen Second Life Populated by over 2 million avatars Complete community – society, culture, economy, buildings, goods, services Operated by Linden Lab Not a game
16	What is Teen Second Life? Over 40,000 teen avatars ages 13-17 on Teen Second Life Adults are not allowed on Teen Second Life except for educational purposes and must have background check Over 200 visitors per day to teen library island Teen library island starting basic skills classes this week
17	The Main Library on Info Island I
18	Why Librarians are in Second Life That’s where many of our users and non-users are! To attract new users to the traditional library through referral To investigate library services in virtual worlds
19	How It All Started April 2006 – First rented building, first small plot of land Alliance Library System and Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Library agree to collaborate on project May 2006 – First island – Info Island I August 2006 – Info Island II donated October 2006 – Grand opening of Info Island I October 2006 – Eye4YouAlliance opens on Teen Second Life December 2006 – Eduisland built as rental for educators who wanted to work together and to be close to library December 2006 – HealthInfo Island built with NLM GMR consumer health outreach grant December 2006 – Cybrary City built for participating librarians donated by Talis January 2007 – Sirsi/Dynix Announces Sponsorship of Info Island I and Eye4YouAlliance Island in Teen Second Life
20	What types of services are we providing and how much traffic are we getting? Reference – in avatar, virtual, and email Programs – weekly programs on an array of topics Exhibits – World War II posters, Alzheimer’s Disease, author Vachel Lindsay Collections grouped by topic – web resources and Second Life formatted books Book discussions and author visits Training – how to use library resources and how to do things in Second Life Evaluating – what kinds of information do people in a virtual world want? Do we need to create a different experience? How do we create that experience? 3-4,000 traffic per day; was at a high of 15,000 during grand opening
21	Partnerships are Critical Sirsi/Dynix Talis Cybrary City Talis second prize in Library mashup award OCLC for virtual reference and World Cat Volunteers from all over the world – over 200 librarians in Second Life; over 350 in google group
22	Let’s Take a Tour! Art Show at Info Island attracts 80 – supports artists in SL
23	Open Air Auditorium in Cybrary City – programs and education for librarians in SL
24	Library tour for CMSU students
25	Ancient Mayan Pyramid with authentic reproductions of ancient Mayan vases
26	Halloween and the Haunted Mausoleum – Giant Horror Books on Display for Recommended Reading
27	The Pantheon Performance Center – live piano concert draws 60
28	Science Fiction and Fantasy Portal – books, podcasts, programs, scifi authors
29	September 11 Twin Tower display and commemorative program
30	Branch Library in Caledon – a 19^th century area where everyone wears period clothing, etc.
31	Ref Desk at Info Island Landing
32	Medical Library on HealthInfo Island
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36	Challenges Staffed by volunteer librarians and others on their own time (burn-out) Funding and sustainability It is like the gold rush – everyone is going to stake their claim – partnerships are key Steep learning curve In April 2006, there were 180,000 accounts; in January 2007 there are over 2 million accounts on SL SL downtime – usually down Wed. for updates and other times it can go down in the middle of an event What types of library services do virtual world users want? Not everyone understands when you are in SL you are working – you might be having fun too; sometimes convincing bosses of this is challenging Hardware and connection required – must have fairly new computer and use broadband connection No integrated audio – several options for audio – just text chat now It is highly addictive and takes a lot of time No easy web integration
37	What We Have Learned Virtual world residents do want a library – we built it and they come Collaboration is key – with strapped budgets and tight staffing, many libraries will want to work with others for a higher quality library Exhibits are very popular Author programs attract a crowd 90 percent of the avatar population are descendants of Barbie and Ken (everyone is beautiful or handsome) It is fun and you meet librarians from all over the world you might not otherwise meet Believe it or not, people still ask for books in a virtual world Some avatars are animals. (they choose an animal instead of a human being as their avatar)
38	Buildings are not always necessary & the weather is always nice in SL
39	Project blogs Info Island – http://www.infoisland.org YouthTech Eye4YouAlliance blog – http://eye4youalliance.youthtech.info/
40	How can you get involved? Contact one of us! Kitty Pope at ALS- kpope@alliancelibrarysystem.com Lori Bell at ALS – lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com “Abbey Zenith,” Director of Island I at – abbeyzen@gmail.com Tom Peters at tapinformation@yahoo.com
41	Want to get involved in Teen Second Life Library? Contact Kelly Czarnecki, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County: kczarnecki@plcmc.org Contact Matt Gullett, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County: mgullett@plcmc.org