My presentation to the LCLCPL is next Wednesday at 3:00. It looks like it is just going to be Mary and Helen, so I don't think I'll do a PowerPoint for this presentation. I'm going to email the paper to Mary before the meeting, and I can create a page for her to print out of the important points I'm going to cover in my speech, but since I'm taking them into Second Life, I don't think a PowerPoint is really necessary.
Mary has offered to go into Second Life with me, and I have accepted. This way Helen can see how the avatars interact with each other, the typing motions , etc. So I'll give my speech first (probably no more than 5 minutes), then we'll go into Second Life and show her what it is. I was thinking of letting it load while I give the speech, but I'm actually going to load it when I'm done, to give Helen a better feel of just how long it takes to load, even on my super-speedy computer - the LCLCPL's computers certainly aren't up to SL standards, so if they decide to do it, they're looking at a substantial investment.
As I said last night, I'm sure my recommendation of entering SL slowly won't be what Helen wants to hear, but I think it's the right recommendation to make - there's just too many factors with SL to jump in willy-nilly. If it were my library, this is the track I would take - lower investment for the test run, and if that test run is successful, then we can invest more resources (time, computers, skills, etc) to creating an island.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Presentation
With my presentation just a few short days away, I finally got started on the mechanics of my presentation. I've been writing my speech and working on the paper for the LCLCPL, so the part I worked on this weekend was the Powerpoint. I decided for simplicity's sake that I would just give a Powerpoint presentation rather than trying to ask everyone to actually go into Second Life - it's just not feasible for a 5 minute presentation.
My presentation looks a little bare, but that's what Powerpoint slides are supposed to look like - in a proper presentation, the slides are simply an outline of what the speaker is discussing, a way to keep everyone watching the presentation on the same timeline. Most of my information will be given in my speech, which is both good and bad. The good part is it keeps me from repeating what's already on the slides and I can improvise if someone has a question. The bad part is that not everyone is an audio learner, so they may miss important information.
I've put a picture from Second Life on every other slide in my presentation because I think it will keep everyone interested. It shakes things up, and I'm able to show what I'm talking about right after I finish talking about it. It also keeps it from getting boring - how many pictures of SL can you really see in 5 minutes?
For the rest of the weekend and the beginning part of the week, I need to review my Powerpoint and finish writing my speech. The paper doesn't have to be "turned in" until next week so I'm putting that aside for the moment - I have it all outlined and some sources, so I'll still be able to write my speech and give a professional presentation to my peers.
My presentation looks a little bare, but that's what Powerpoint slides are supposed to look like - in a proper presentation, the slides are simply an outline of what the speaker is discussing, a way to keep everyone watching the presentation on the same timeline. Most of my information will be given in my speech, which is both good and bad. The good part is it keeps me from repeating what's already on the slides and I can improvise if someone has a question. The bad part is that not everyone is an audio learner, so they may miss important information.
I've put a picture from Second Life on every other slide in my presentation because I think it will keep everyone interested. It shakes things up, and I'm able to show what I'm talking about right after I finish talking about it. It also keeps it from getting boring - how many pictures of SL can you really see in 5 minutes?
For the rest of the weekend and the beginning part of the week, I need to review my Powerpoint and finish writing my speech. The paper doesn't have to be "turned in" until next week so I'm putting that aside for the moment - I have it all outlined and some sources, so I'll still be able to write my speech and give a professional presentation to my peers.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Paper has started
This past week, I managed to start my paper. I have most of the Introduction done, as well as some of the Background and Asynchronous Collection. I have been formatting my References as I use them so I won't have to do it all at once at the end of the paper, and I have also been doing a lot of research. I haven't started on the virtual reference part of the paper yet - I want to find a few more sources before I start that, but I'll certainly have to start it by this weekend. I want a first draft of the paper done by Thanksgiving, so that I'll have the last weekend of the semester to polish it, write the speech (which will flow from the paper) and create my Powerpoint.
Much of the research I did this week was encouraging libraries to get into Second Life now - strike just before the iron gets hot, so to speak. Many people feel that if libraries can establish themselves in SL before many of the patrons get there, patrons will naturally turn to libraries for help in SL and thus be viable and valuable again. So now I don't know what to suggest to Helen. On the one hand, I would hate to see the LCLCPL rush into anything, just because they want to get into SL and be well trained before their patrons get there. But if the patrons never show, the LCLCPL has wasted time and money on a virtual reference environment. On the other hand, I wouldn't like to see the LCLCPL sitting on the sidelines when they have a chance to be a leader for public libraries in SL. So I guess it's really about timing - entering SL early enough to have a bit of lead-time for training but not so early that it's still unclear if Leon County patrons will ever use SL. Many non-library people I've spoken to (including college students) say "Second Life? Is that, like, that online game where people try to make money?" If people are only thinking of SL as a game, or a commercial endeavor, they will never try it.
The bottom line is that the LCLCPL needs to do what is best for their patrons. If their patrons show absolutely no interest in SL right now, perhaps the LCLCPL should hold off on entering SL for the moment and focus on other virtual reference opportunities. If patron interest in SL swells in a few years, then the LCLCPL will be ready.
Much of the research I did this week was encouraging libraries to get into Second Life now - strike just before the iron gets hot, so to speak. Many people feel that if libraries can establish themselves in SL before many of the patrons get there, patrons will naturally turn to libraries for help in SL and thus be viable and valuable again. So now I don't know what to suggest to Helen. On the one hand, I would hate to see the LCLCPL rush into anything, just because they want to get into SL and be well trained before their patrons get there. But if the patrons never show, the LCLCPL has wasted time and money on a virtual reference environment. On the other hand, I wouldn't like to see the LCLCPL sitting on the sidelines when they have a chance to be a leader for public libraries in SL. So I guess it's really about timing - entering SL early enough to have a bit of lead-time for training but not so early that it's still unclear if Leon County patrons will ever use SL. Many non-library people I've spoken to (including college students) say "Second Life? Is that, like, that online game where people try to make money?" If people are only thinking of SL as a game, or a commercial endeavor, they will never try it.
The bottom line is that the LCLCPL needs to do what is best for their patrons. If their patrons show absolutely no interest in SL right now, perhaps the LCLCPL should hold off on entering SL for the moment and focus on other virtual reference opportunities. If patron interest in SL swells in a few years, then the LCLCPL will be ready.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Outline and research
This week I realized that there are only 5 weeks left to write my paper, one of which is Thanksgiving week, during which I probably won't be doing any work. This leaves 4 weeks, with 2 other final projects to accomplish. The panicking started, the planning kicked in, and I created an outline for my final project. This was trickier than it sounds, as I'm doing SL stuff for THREE different people.
The first is for the Leon County Public Library. As the actual organization, I'm most concerned with their happiness. I think that if the LCLCPL is happy, the grades will come because the LCLCPL wouldn't be happy with a lousy plan/paper. This project is going to be a hybrid of a plan and a term paper. I plan to set it up like a term paper, addressing the different aspects of entering SL as a library, including real-time reference, asynchronous reference (also called Collection Management in the paper, as a virtual reference environment's collection will mostly be links to different things), and special considerations for the public library - like how, in many cases, only one avatar can be created from each computer. This is a problem for public libraries, as many people will probably create their avatars at the library where they can get librarian help. (Luckily, there's a solution to this problem, which will be addressed in the paper).
The second is for this class, the VRE. Interestingly enough, I may not necessarily have to write a paper for this class, as the third turn-in-able is a "submission of your final project". So it may be better for me to simply turn in the presentation that I will be giving to the LCLCPL, which will be much like the presentation I give in class. In fact, the class presentation will actually be a warm-up for the LCLCPL presentation, so I will have a chance to tweak it and make it better for the final organization.
The third is for my Management of Information Collections class. This paper will be focusing primarily on the asynchronous part of SL, the development of the virtual collection. This paper will mostly be derived from the paper for the LCLCPL, with the reference parts taken out. This is acceptable because the big paper for the LCLCPL is not being submitted for a grade, and submitting it to the organization is part of the final projct requirement.
So this week I spent mostly doing research. I've been searching the databases for articles on SL, how SL is used in libraries, especially public libraries, and I must say so far I've found a lot of personal narrative-type articles, which is not really what I want. I think putting one or two of those in the paper for the LCLCPL would be acceptable, as the librarians in the meeting will want to know how other librarians felt about SL, but I need to ensure my discussion is backed up with more academic evidence.
Once I write a first draft of the paper for the LCLCPL, then I can start planning my presentation. I think for class, the presentation will be mostly Powerpoint, with lots of pictures from SL. As a B.S-holding Business Administration major, I have been taught to be leery of Powerpoint presentations. So many people cut and paste stuff onto the slides and then just read the slides, which is really the worst thing you can do in a business presentation. At least I'm aware of this and so I can make sure not to make that mistake in my own presentation. For the LCLCPL presentation, Helen wants to actually visit SL and see what's inside, so that will be the second part of the presentation. I thought about putting it first, but I'm afraid she will be so enamored of the virtual world that she won't take my research seriously. In the preliminary research I've done so far, nearly every article is advising for public libraries to wait a few more years, until more peoples' computers catch up with the SL technology, before sinking a lot of time and money into a place where their patrons might not yet be, and I want to know she will be able to hear that message.
The first is for the Leon County Public Library. As the actual organization, I'm most concerned with their happiness. I think that if the LCLCPL is happy, the grades will come because the LCLCPL wouldn't be happy with a lousy plan/paper. This project is going to be a hybrid of a plan and a term paper. I plan to set it up like a term paper, addressing the different aspects of entering SL as a library, including real-time reference, asynchronous reference (also called Collection Management in the paper, as a virtual reference environment's collection will mostly be links to different things), and special considerations for the public library - like how, in many cases, only one avatar can be created from each computer. This is a problem for public libraries, as many people will probably create their avatars at the library where they can get librarian help. (Luckily, there's a solution to this problem, which will be addressed in the paper).
The second is for this class, the VRE. Interestingly enough, I may not necessarily have to write a paper for this class, as the third turn-in-able is a "submission of your final project". So it may be better for me to simply turn in the presentation that I will be giving to the LCLCPL, which will be much like the presentation I give in class. In fact, the class presentation will actually be a warm-up for the LCLCPL presentation, so I will have a chance to tweak it and make it better for the final organization.
The third is for my Management of Information Collections class. This paper will be focusing primarily on the asynchronous part of SL, the development of the virtual collection. This paper will mostly be derived from the paper for the LCLCPL, with the reference parts taken out. This is acceptable because the big paper for the LCLCPL is not being submitted for a grade, and submitting it to the organization is part of the final projct requirement.
So this week I spent mostly doing research. I've been searching the databases for articles on SL, how SL is used in libraries, especially public libraries, and I must say so far I've found a lot of personal narrative-type articles, which is not really what I want. I think putting one or two of those in the paper for the LCLCPL would be acceptable, as the librarians in the meeting will want to know how other librarians felt about SL, but I need to ensure my discussion is backed up with more academic evidence.
Once I write a first draft of the paper for the LCLCPL, then I can start planning my presentation. I think for class, the presentation will be mostly Powerpoint, with lots of pictures from SL. As a B.S-holding Business Administration major, I have been taught to be leery of Powerpoint presentations. So many people cut and paste stuff onto the slides and then just read the slides, which is really the worst thing you can do in a business presentation. At least I'm aware of this and so I can make sure not to make that mistake in my own presentation. For the LCLCPL presentation, Helen wants to actually visit SL and see what's inside, so that will be the second part of the presentation. I thought about putting it first, but I'm afraid she will be so enamored of the virtual world that she won't take my research seriously. In the preliminary research I've done so far, nearly every article is advising for public libraries to wait a few more years, until more peoples' computers catch up with the SL technology, before sinking a lot of time and money into a place where their patrons might not yet be, and I want to know she will be able to hear that message.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Crazy week
I'm sorry to report that I got almost no work done this week. Not from laziness, or from lack of trying, just because of life. My computer decided to crash last Saturday, which meant the whole weekend was shot, and then I had to work all day Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday I was out of town at a special appointment. So now it's Thursday, my computer still isn't fixed (though it's in the shop, so maybe by next week...) and I'm so tired I just want to pass out.
Alas, life goes on. I did manage to read the Pomerantz article last week, which I found interesting. I really liked his idea that "Blogs act as organizers of data." I'm not big on blogging personally - I like to talk to people as closely as possible, either face to face or on the phone. The people who truly care about what's going on in my life aren't addicted to their computers, and I would probably call them with the news before they got the information.
But that's in my personal life. In a professional setting, I can see where blogging would be useful - having to research the answer to the same question over and over again would get really old, really fast. With a blog, be it shared among librarians or just a blog for yourself, would save you that research time and time again. And as you discovered more information, you could simply add it to your blog to make an even better answer for the next person. Using keywords would help even more, giving you a searchable way to sort of catalog your thoughts and information.
I think a blog would be something really nice to have in SL, if you're using SL as a reference environment. It gives people another reference option for when there isn't a librarian staffing the SL space. Some questions can be anticipated (time of year, special occasions, stuff in the news, etc) and the good librarian can have links in SL ready. But taking it one step further, really utilizing all the technology available to librarians today and creating a blog about these events, not just having a pathfinder, would really enhance the user's experience, especially if other people can add to the blog. Of course, this brings up a whole slew of problems, especially for such a high-profile agency as the public library - how to monitor the blog to ensure no one makes inappropriate comments, keeping people on topic, etc - so public libraries may not be able to open their blogs to the public for editing just yet. But even posting the librarian's search strategies, posting the full question and asking other librarians to post their suggestions on tough questions could really help the user.
Alas, life goes on. I did manage to read the Pomerantz article last week, which I found interesting. I really liked his idea that "Blogs act as organizers of data." I'm not big on blogging personally - I like to talk to people as closely as possible, either face to face or on the phone. The people who truly care about what's going on in my life aren't addicted to their computers, and I would probably call them with the news before they got the information.
But that's in my personal life. In a professional setting, I can see where blogging would be useful - having to research the answer to the same question over and over again would get really old, really fast. With a blog, be it shared among librarians or just a blog for yourself, would save you that research time and time again. And as you discovered more information, you could simply add it to your blog to make an even better answer for the next person. Using keywords would help even more, giving you a searchable way to sort of catalog your thoughts and information.
I think a blog would be something really nice to have in SL, if you're using SL as a reference environment. It gives people another reference option for when there isn't a librarian staffing the SL space. Some questions can be anticipated (time of year, special occasions, stuff in the news, etc) and the good librarian can have links in SL ready. But taking it one step further, really utilizing all the technology available to librarians today and creating a blog about these events, not just having a pathfinder, would really enhance the user's experience, especially if other people can add to the blog. Of course, this brings up a whole slew of problems, especially for such a high-profile agency as the public library - how to monitor the blog to ensure no one makes inappropriate comments, keeping people on topic, etc - so public libraries may not be able to open their blogs to the public for editing just yet. But even posting the librarian's search strategies, posting the full question and asking other librarians to post their suggestions on tough questions could really help the user.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Good points about SL
This week I finally got to start looking through the SL books I checked out from Goldstein a few weeks ago. October has been a crazy month in my real life, but things are finally starting to settle down so I can really get researching on this final project.
I've only gotten to flip through one book so far, which is the Official Guide, but many of the points made so far are pretty obvious: the only limit to your SL is you imagination, use common sense in SL, and you can change your avatar's appearance as often and as quickly as you like.
There were a few points that stood out in my mind, the first being a line from the introduction. "In Second Life, changes that would take millenia of groaning and straining in the real world can be completed within a few hours. If real life is all about evolution, Second Life is evolution squared" (Rymaszewski, 2007, p. ix). For a library, this is both a good and a bad thing, and definitely something I need to take into consideration in my project plan. The inherent flexibility of SL gives libraries a great deal of freedom from real world restraints, like cost, amount and shape of space available to them, and the ability to think of something, try it, and then either keep or discard it within a matter of minutes. The downside to the constant fluidity of SL is how difficult it is to get a grasp on, especially for librarians who have many other demands on their time - who has time to learn it all when there are patrons standing at the desk, waiting to be helped? To this end, I think that if the LCLCPL decided to enter SL, much of the work should be done by one librarian, to better distribute staff time.
The other thing that stuck out in my reading this week was the mention of role-playing in SL. I know we covered this in class, and how there are different areas dedicated to role-playing, but the Official Guide dedicates quite a few paragraphs to them, spread across the first 3 chapters. This is something that I want to think about in my plan - for some teens, they may want to use part of the LCLCPL's space for Role-Playing Games (RPGs) or even special events that involve role-playing, like book talks or something. The librarian could even have a special day, like on International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19) where he/she gets into a role for a day.
I think this book is really going to help me focus my plan, which is great - at this moment, I'm still a little overwhelmed with the project I've taken on, so anything that helps me focus my ideas is a good thing.
I've only gotten to flip through one book so far, which is the Official Guide, but many of the points made so far are pretty obvious: the only limit to your SL is you imagination, use common sense in SL, and you can change your avatar's appearance as often and as quickly as you like.
There were a few points that stood out in my mind, the first being a line from the introduction. "In Second Life, changes that would take millenia of groaning and straining in the real world can be completed within a few hours. If real life is all about evolution, Second Life is evolution squared" (Rymaszewski, 2007, p. ix). For a library, this is both a good and a bad thing, and definitely something I need to take into consideration in my project plan. The inherent flexibility of SL gives libraries a great deal of freedom from real world restraints, like cost, amount and shape of space available to them, and the ability to think of something, try it, and then either keep or discard it within a matter of minutes. The downside to the constant fluidity of SL is how difficult it is to get a grasp on, especially for librarians who have many other demands on their time - who has time to learn it all when there are patrons standing at the desk, waiting to be helped? To this end, I think that if the LCLCPL decided to enter SL, much of the work should be done by one librarian, to better distribute staff time.
The other thing that stuck out in my reading this week was the mention of role-playing in SL. I know we covered this in class, and how there are different areas dedicated to role-playing, but the Official Guide dedicates quite a few paragraphs to them, spread across the first 3 chapters. This is something that I want to think about in my plan - for some teens, they may want to use part of the LCLCPL's space for Role-Playing Games (RPGs) or even special events that involve role-playing, like book talks or something. The librarian could even have a special day, like on International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19) where he/she gets into a role for a day.
I think this book is really going to help me focus my plan, which is great - at this moment, I'm still a little overwhelmed with the project I've taken on, so anything that helps me focus my ideas is a good thing.
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