Home Institutions & Organizations
Institutions & Organizations
Foster Building hosts election exhibit PDF Print E-mail
Written by Leeorie Alter   

 

Election exhibit on InfoIsland :: Photo by VERDE OTAARED
We can only hope that by the time you are reading this, the U.S. national elections are behind us. And certainly many will be sighing with relief. For U.S. citizens, the campaigns were long and sometimes confusing. At least for those in Second Life, Info Island offered an oasis of electoral education in the guise of an exhibit.
 
The exhibit in the Foster building is part of a series of rotating exhibits devoted to seasonal or topical themes. Earlier in the summer, visitors had a chance to learn all they could ever want to know about baseball.  Ka Castaignede took the lead in developing the election exhibit. Castaignede, Karen McEwen in real life, is an MLIS student at Indiana University. She is returning to school after working in fields of business, law, and customer service. “I’m from just outside of Washington D. C. When the real estate market crashed, so did my job,” she said. After examining her options, her love of books and libraries prompted to her to get a library degree. “I decided to focus on doing something that would pay the bills but would also be something I truly enjoyed.”
    
However, that journey has held some surprises. “I never thought I would be designing virtual displays,” she said with a laugh. It was an episode of the television show Law and Order that lured her into Second Life. The plot touched on SL. “It fascinated me. So I went to look and see if such a thing actually existed, and found Second Life.” Ka explored for several months. “And then suddenly I realized there were libraries. I did an article for school and interviewed one of the librarians here and decided it was something I wanted to be a part of.”
 
Her interests led her to Rocky Vallejo, head of collections for Info Island. “When I started volunteering, I was interviewed by Marimar (Berchot). She asked what I wanted to do, whether I was more interested in reference or collection development. When I graduate in December, I hope to find a job in collection development, so I was thrilled at the opportunity.” Castaignede started out assisting Cindy Elkhart in development of the Second Life Resource Center on Info Island. “Eventually I started doing designs on my own, as well.  I am fascinated with finding ways to express information through visualization. A lot of times, I refer to our displays as visual pathfinders,” she said. She began working with Rocky to develop displays for the libraries on Info Island.
 
“Rocky and I had discussed some ideas for displays. The election was a natural topic. A lot of displays are like that. We brainstorm ideas, share resources and kind of run with it from there.”  Castaignede said the goals for the election exhibit were to provide information on as many different political groups as possible, provide interactive materials such as freebies and a voting board, and, to a lesser extent, demonstrate how people find and absorb political information.  For a topic that can be so emotionally charged, Ka acknowledged it was sometimes tough to stay objective. “One of the issues that comes up with displays in general is that a large number of avatars are from countries all over the world….and trying to find materials that will be of interest to lots of groups. Part of the problem is also finding materials to imbed with the information that reflect international interest.”
 
Unlike what can sometimes happen in real life, Ka wasn’t faced with any campaigners trying to sway her emphasis. “I know Rocky ran into someone who was unhappy about the display reflecting only American politics. He showed them on the wall that we included some international political results. Other than that, the feedback has been positive.
 
"Much of the credit for this display goes to Ka,” Vallejo said. “She did a terrific job providing resources, graphics and interactive objects. We were also greatly appreciative of HollyJean Allen who created a collage containing many of the symbols of the 2008 political process.”
 
Vallejo invites all to stop by the library for an election night party. Results will be posted as they come in.
 

0 Comments
ALA's Story Hour Garden: a magical place for readers PDF Print E-mail
by BOOKIE BALOGH


Imagine wandering through the professional maze of the ALA Island in Second Life, to come across a delightful and magical place – the ALA garden.  A place that couldn’t exist in the real life American Library Association at 50 East Huron Street, Chicago.  The ALA garden, now known as the Story Hour Garden, is a wondrous hideaway for young and old alike, where relaxation on mushrooms is par for the course, and a story hour is streaming, 24/7.  Go into the garden, wander around, sit on a mushroom or other comfy seat, and you’ll find your avatar is doing yoga exercises, taking a nap, or otherwise having a great time.

ALA Garden :: Photo by LEEORIE ALTER

How did this happen?  ALA  Island started as the American Library Association's venture into the virtual world of Second Life.  The first garden was much like a traditional campfire garden – not tremendously inspiring.  Kay Tairov, ALA staffer who is responsible for the garden, wanted "a place where people could listen to audio books and relax – a place that would be both fun and whimsical." She gave the garden’s designer a few key adjectives, and the rest is history.

 

The Story Hour Garden accommodates a great deal of functionality.  In addition to the streaming story telling, the idea is to reflect Second Life culture more than would be possible in a real life garden, and to remind us that this is a virtual world, where we can be serious but at the same time have fun. 

 

The revised ALA garden had its origins for this year’s National Library Week, featuring the story of Martina the Cockroach.  With the Storyline Series – a series of streaming stories – anyone can sit down and enjoy  their own ‘story hour’, for all ages.  (Just remember to go to Edit – Preferences – Audio and Video, and select streaming media.  Otherwise, you won’t hear the media, nor will you receive an invitation while in the garden to sit down and listen to the stories.)

 

All of the stories are public domain at this point.  They can be enjoyed at all times by SLers around the world, as they are available around the clock.

 

The designer, Jedda Zenovka, has ample experience with designing and building attractive and complex spaces in the virtual world.  Her originality and creativity in building the IW5 complex made her an ideal choice for fulfilling the concept of the ALA garden.

 

Most recently, ALA held a contest to name the garden.  Story Hour Garden was the winning entry – a name that is entirely appropriate to the garden’s intent and ambience.  This writer just met in the garden a school librarian who says that she comes to the garden regularly because she loves it.  Hopefully, others will discover the charm of this wonderfully designed space in our virtual life.

 

So, visit the ALA island, and while you’re there, don’t miss the Story Hour Garden.  Whether you’re a school librarian, public librarian, academic librarian, or not a librarian at all, you are sure to be captivated by the imagination and creativity this special place offers.

ALA Island (25, 101, 21)

 
 

0 Comments