Stress keeps a-rising

My computer is STILL in the shop, so I haven't had access to SL in over 3 weeks. I'm really starting to panic - even though my presentation isn't until Dec. 3, I still want to have time to take lots of SL pictures of what I'll be talking about and to have a chance to practice in Elluminate.

The good news is that my real world research is almost done. I've written an outline and collected most of my sources. I think it will be easiest to write the paper first, then do the speech, and finally the Powerpoint. Even though I need the Powerpoint presentation first (for my class presentation on the 3rd) I don't think I can make a good presentation without knowing what I want to say first.

In my presentation to LCLCPL, I am planning to present my findings first, then go into SL. I'm afraid that if we go into SL first, Helen will be so enamored with it that she will comepletely disregard my findings and cautions and may not even listen to my presentation. Mary has been into SL before, so she will know what to expect but I don't know if Helen has any experience at all in SL. And that could be why she's so gung-ho about it - she doesn't know what it's really like.

I mostly concerned for the LCLCPL to rush headlong into SL and then find that none of their patrons are even IN SL. It is extremely difficult to give good reference assistance if the patron isn't there. I really wanted Helen to consider 2.0 technologies before SL because we know the patrons are there - just walking around the library you see people checking their Facebook or MySpace pages. I think the key to successful reference work is to see where your patrons are, then go there, not the other way around. Trying to anticipate where patrons will go is tricky at best, expensive and unsuccessful at worst. And it's not like the LCLCPL has librarians already trained in SL, which would make the implementation easier.

At least I know the parts of my presentation, I have a plan and an outline to do it, and hopefully my computer will be fixed next week.