Taking the Reins

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Taking the Reins

In January, 2008, Clark Abismo sent a message to the Librarians of Second Life group inviting anyone interested to attend a meeting to discuss forming a library magazine in Second Life. A few people responded and, from that small meeting, more people joined the effort including myself. A blog was created to discuss the project. In February 2008, a contest was sponsored to find a suitable name for the proposed publication. Twelve entries were received and then narrowed down to five by a small panel. These five choices were then put into a poll on the blog for voting. RezLibris won the majority. mTea Box had submitted the winning name and was presented with her prize and a plaque at a March 17 St. Patrick's themed party at the new RezLibris office in Cybrary City II. There was dancing, green beer drinking, and Daisyblue Hefferman provided a step dancing Hud for all to enjoy. See the machinima: Rez Libris St. Patrick's Party.

It became apparant, as our staff grew from a core base of the founding four - Clark, myself, Eirene Janus (our website manager) and Leeorie Alter (our Assistant News Editor), that we all worked well together but each of us had our own special talents and interests. Clark had a background in building and a good deal of technology know-how, but he was from Portugal, and although he wrote and spoke English fluently, he still needed occasional help with grammar. I, on the other hand, although I had no aptitude for building and not much for layout or technical work, had experience in editing and writing in real life as well as Second Life. The two of us pooled our talents and became co-publishers of RezLibris. Because of our time zone differences, communication through email and text chat served us well when we couldn't meet in Second Life. It became a regular thing for us to email one another or send chat messages on a daily basis just to keep up with and discuss/brainstorm the different issues of the developing magazine. Neither of us had realized how time intensive this project had turned out to be. But with the help of some great people who joined and supported us, and some pep talks to each other when needed, we kept focused on our goal of putting out a magazine for the librarians of Second Life.

In his final editorial last month before he left to continue his studies, Clark stated, "As we finish this month's issue, I find myself looking back at all we've accomplished this past year. I think about our original intentions, what we were up to and what led us to go so far. It's hard to put a project like this together, and I've been lucky to have such great supporters around me, and we've made an incredible group that put all these stories together. The work is huge, and we've been learning a lot, while at the same time, we've tried to answer people's expectations."

Huge is an understatement. Although our staff has grown to include eight editors, a website manager, a PR Director, and a Publisher with a number of writers and other contributors, there is so much to cover and so much more we want to address. Although the InfoArchipelago and the Libarians of Second Life group provide us with more than enough material for each issue, we want to expand to educational groups, other SL libraries, and perhaps even real life libraries. We want to introduce more interactivity both on the website and at our office. Last month we sponsored a new photo contest, "The Eye Spy a Library Photo" which we hope will be a regular feature. We are adding an exhibits section, breaking news briefs, a fashion column, and a Performer's Showcase. Since we are a library magazine, we are planning some time in the future to build a reader's room at our office where book talks can be given as well as an area for socializing and sharing music, talk, and news. One other long-term project in the works is the publishing of an inworld anniversary edition of our top stories of the year this coming fall in conjunction with a special party to celebrate our first year of publication.

Most of these ideas were ones Clark and I discussed before he officially stepped down from his position as publisher. It was not an easy decision for him, but he did his best to make the transition as smooth as possible for me as has the rest of the staff who have been equally supportive and encouraging, and It is my pleasure to officially announce that I am taking the reins as Publisher of RezLibris. Although I've been with the group since the start, it is still a little scary and overwhelming for me to take on this responsibility but, like a mountain climber, I'm going to approach the summit without looking down. I invite you to share with me and the staff your ideas, news, and suggestions about how we can make RezLibris your library magazine. I invite you to join our team as a writer, photographer, or other contributor. I invite you to join our Readers Group to receive announcements about our issues and special events. I invite you to send in your comments about any of our articles. And, most important, I invite you to read us. As our motto coined by our PR Director, Vienna James, states, our aim is to "inform, share, inspire and encourage the SL Library Community." With your input and support we will continue trying our best to do that.

Dulcie Mills
Publisher, RezLibris
June 7, 2009

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