Editor's note: The very successful FIN conference was held in March 2010.  Some of the highlights of the conference are reported here.

"Joining Hands: Library/Museum Collaboration in Virtual Worlds"

Moderated by Esther Grassian (SL: Alexandria Knight), this session was a panel discussion with reactors. Knight was an excellent moderator and sought to involve both audience and panel members in the discussion. She began the event by asking audience members to stand up if they were library workers in real life. She then asked audience members to stand up if they were museum workers in real life. She  remarked that we all have something invested in the quest to improve library and museum funding, which have recently taken a beating.

The first panelist to speak was Herminia Din (SL: Beaver Lightstone). She was speaking from Taiwan but spoke particularly about her involvement with the Alaska digital archives. She was a compelling speaker who described the capture of historical Alaskan objects in a multimedia presentation vehicle and, unfortunately, disappointed the audience with the news that her project lost funding and will no longer be continued.  Other presenters included Kim Gregson from Ithaca College, who talked about GameMaker software and Rigina Roberts of Stanford University, who reviewed the current project linking art and course content to library resources.  Dennis Moser (SL: Maxwell Biddle) spoke about his research project concerning Cultural Heritage and the need to involve all players from museums, archives, and libraries in the effort to preserve content. He also went over some of the fundamentals of funding and cost justification. This brought home the subject of how it is in all of our interests to make the effort to secure funding.

Keynote speech

Sharon Tettegah (SL: Amagariwah Kavabata) introduced the session, followed by Cynthia Calonge (SL: Lyr Lobo). Calonge recounted how much libraries and museums have changed in Second Life. In 2003, there were only four people grappling with how to catalog all the resources. But Second Life has grown, and virtual worlds are here to stay. We know that they have become places for entertainment. It is important that libraries maintain a presence so that Second Life may also be used for technology and learning. Now the challenges are funding and staffing.

Then Al Weiss (SL: Alfred Banbour) spoke about how libraries and museums in Second Life often do the same things that libraries do in real life. We have a space for teachers, a space for students, a place for exhibits and a place for patrons where the contents of one space rarely intermix with the content of the other. We need to think outside the box to take true advantage of what is offered in Second Life. One of his ideas is to have students and patrons manipulate the environment themselves and make the space their own. Investigations have show that students like to have an indoor space. They like to be involved in determining how the space is used in their classroom. Their level of engagement with issues like this is somewhat co-related to their level of interest in learning.

Calonge spoke again about the dynamic nature of Second Life.  Information exchange need no longer be static.  Users can interact with the media and content in dynamic ways.  Patrons in museums can interact with the exhibits.  For instance, instead of just viewing furniture from a distance as has traditionally been the case for brick-and-mortar museums in the interest of protecting the artifacts, in Second Life patrons can actually sit on the furniture and use it.  It may not be the same experience as it would be with the actual artifact in real life, but the combination of virtual interaction and real-life viewing reinforces the experience more than that available in traditional real-life museums.

 

LIS Educators Panel Discussion

This panel discussion involved educators in LIS programs around the United States. First Vanessa Morris (SL: Marchena Rajal) from Drexel spoke. Her library program is primarily distance learning to begin with. She described how one class for librarianship in a virtual world acclimatized themselves to Second Life. They were able to lead tours of Innovation InfoIsland and experienced a diminished learning curve in Second Life that they were not able to experience as well with their other online tools.

Lorri Mon (SL:  Lorri Momji) from Florida State University spoke about her LIS distance program and reported that her students felt the social aspect of their experience in Second Life enhanced their Second Life experiences. Their normal online tools, such as Eluminate and Question Point did not provide as rich an experience as Second Life’s immersive environment.

“School Librarians Get Involved with ISTE SIGMS”

This session was presented by Lisa Perez (SL: Elaine Tulip) from the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries. One of the Special Interest Groups (SIG) prominent in Second Life is the International Society for Technologists in Education (ISTE). Perez talked about her successful initiation of a chapter of this group in Chicago. She recited some of the particulars of the group meetings and expressed that the group was more about the profession than it was about Second Life. 

“A Conversation with Peter May, author of the Novel Virtually Dead, a murder mystery set partially in Second Life.”

Peter May (SL: Flick Faulds), author of Virtually Dead, gave the keynote presentation.  The author informed us that he had formerly been in television in the UK and then had been lucky enough to become a successful author. He has written a few book series, with settings in China, on the Hebrides Islands of Scotland, and in France. His book that involves Second Life was meant to be a standalone. When questioned, the author admits that if the sales were brisk enough and if the publishers wished it to be so, he would consider writing more books based in Second Life.

Much of the talk covered the author’s writing career and how he came up with the ideas for his previous series. An interesting aspect of his literary development is that his novels tended to develop out of immersive experiences in different parts of the world.  Since Second Life may be considered an immersive experience itself, it makes sense that it was May’s total immersion into Second Life that prompted him to write yet another novel.  As May’s previous characters were based on thrillers and crime detection, May decided that his avatar should open up a Second Life detective agency.  He found that he had a lot of business.  And it was by running this business that May came up with the idea for his Second Life novel.

The author was certainly fascinating to listen to. He was pragmatic yet sophisticated. He recounted many personal experiences that made the audience yearn for a life of travel. He told us about the catacombs in Paris, about the secret police in China, money laundering in the United States. As an added tidbit, he told us that his detective agency in Second Life is still open for business.

“SnapShots: One University Library’s Use of Second Life”

This brief session took place on ALA Island and discussed Stanford University’s project on their Second Life Island. The presenters talked about how they made virtual samples of information resources available in Second Life so that prospective scholars could determine if the material was suitable for their research.  This was a preliminary step to help the researchers assess if the financial cost of supporting a trip to Stanford was justifiable.

An interesting side-note of the presentation was a discussion about design considerations for their warehouse depiction. Their virtual samples did reflect a graphical representation of the material stored within the Hollinger Box. But the Stanford team decided to slightly fantasize their décor to mimic the world of Harry Potter or Indiana Jones rather than to accurately portray the starkness of the real world warehouse.

“When Real and Virtual Worlds Collide: A Second Life Library”

This session was presented by a team from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Second Life is the largest virtual world service. The team wanted examine how libraries can fit into the future. So they studied brick-and-mortar libraries and virtual libraries to see how they both meet the needs of their patrons. The three main questions to be answered were: 1) what are the integrated goals?; 2) what is the optimal way to deliver the services to meet the goals?; and 3) how usable is the virtual library? The research approach was a mix of focus groups, surveys, and interviews.

The team performed data triangulation on data from Second Life and from brick-and-mortar libraries in the Midwest. They approached the data from multiple perspectives. Their conclusion, however, was that Second Life is not a viable approach to providing library services to their patrons.

“Alliance Virtual Library to Community Virtual Library 2006 – 2010 and Beyond”

This session was amazingly interesting and was attended by about 30 people. The presenters were Bill Sowers (SL: Rocky Vallejo), Samantha Thompson (SL: Hypatia Dejavu) and Rhonda Trueman (SL: Abbey Zenith). They took turns speaking but among the three  they recounted the genesis of the Alliance Virtual Library and its evolution through time. They talked about their tasks of collections, cataloging, and many more as well as their administrative meetings. They talked about how important communications are, their use of Google Docs, and their email group.

Perhaps the hardest but most central chore is that of soliciting and maintaining funding.  They have all been involved in many fundraising activities. There have been innumerable volunteer time and dedication. They talked about maintaining the proper attitude not only in keeping a positive outlook but also in approaching and working with others. A quick sidenote: the seats for the presentation space were dangling mid-air in a stadium seat-type arrangement. The real beauty of this design was that at any time when an attendee chose to “stand up”, they were returned to ground level where there were no physical barriers to a swift exit.

“In Loco Parentis and Virtual Worlds: Discussions for New Media Classrooms and Academic Libraries”

This session was the last one of the conference and was presented by Michele LeSure (SL: Mala Fegte). The subject of the presentation was the protection of children in “new media” classrooms and virtual worlds. Unless one has ever thought about this subject before, the issues are probably a bit more complex than one would guess. Schools and even universities act as absentee parents to the minors who are under their auspices. There are at least two ways of looking at this arrangement: legal and pedagogical. The legal aspect is as it implies but involves multiple players including the state and local jurisdictions.  A more complex aspect is that of pedagogical “In Loco Parentis” and involves actually ensuring the child’s welfare and safety.

In an environment such as Second Life, it is easy to imagine some of the dangers lurking around every corner, such as griefers and mature content sims. That condition has been slightly altered as of late with the adoption of the new Linden policy on adult sims. With the inclusion of the presentation on Gorean culture at the conference, one can readily imagine the physical harm to which one’s avatar might be subjected. But in loco parentis can include much simpler concepts such as who signs the forms of agreement that one is subject to upon his or her entry into the Linden virtual world. With issues such as these, it is important to keep the concepts of “In Loco Parentis” front and center.