ACRL-VWIG & ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries Program

August 21, 2016

 CVL Auditorium in Second Life 12:00pm SLT

Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal in Second Life), President of Rockcliffe University Consortium

The Rockcliffe Library Network Ten Years in Second Life 

 

Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal)

For the August ACRL-VWIG Program, Kevin Feenan, President of the Rockcliffe University Consortium provided an overview of the history and recent activities of the Rockcliffe Library Network within Second Life.  This organization has been active in Second Life for 10 years.  The library network started out in 2006 as a single site which served as a training and development resource center for Rockcliffe members in Second Life.  Since then it has progressively expanded its efforts to support educational/research projects by helping to make open-access publications and data available via the internet and mobile technologies to all researchers.  Along the way it has encouraged and promoted co-operation among the community of educators and librarians involved in immersive environments, especially Second Life.

The August program was one of the best attended with 25 librarians and educators from across the U.S.

The MediaWiki has had over 300,000 requests for access in the past year.  It cross references content in virtual worlds.

 Other activities include the development of the "MediaWiki".  This wiki focuses on resources related to immersive environments including articles, bibliographies, a curated collection of research tools, and other links to information related to knowledge emergence using virtual collaborative environments. 

The newly expanded Rockcliffe Library in Second Life

The Rockcliffe Library provides access to Resources such as open access e-journals and other online resources

 The Second Life Library on the campus of Rockcliffe University has recently expanded in size to cover half a region.  The library now includes 5 major subject areas; Business & Economics, Law, Social Sciences, Fine Arts, Science and the Humanities.  Multiple Reference areas with information kiosks provide researcher with access to e-journals and other open access, electronic resources.  

Reference areas include Science, the Arts, Education, Business and the Humanities.

Today the Rockcliffe Library Network, along with the Community Virtual Library,  has become one of the most vital and supportive outposts for those currently active in virtual worlds.  Future plans include an expansion to the Avacon Region of the Opensim Grid, where a library occupying 4 sims has been created.  The Rockcliffe Library Network has also submitted an application to ALA to become a registered ALA library.  

ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group Summer 2016 Programs

ACRL-Virtual Worlds Interest Group Summer 2016 Programs

  

ACRL-VWIG May 2016 Program

Joint session with ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries MIG

 Sunday May 15^th 2016  12-1:30 pm SLT - CVL Auditorium

The Virtual Pioneers: Andrew Wheelock

 

For its’ first program of the summer, Spiff Whitfield met with the ACRL-VWIG to discuss immersive learning environments in Second Life.  Specifically he presented on the activities of the “Virtual Pioneers”.  This group of educators who explore virtual worlds seeking out immersive learning opportunities.  

 

The Virtual Pioneers started as small group of Social Studies educators in 2007.  From there it has branched out to include history minded people from around the world.  The presentation by Andrew Wheelock highlighted the journey of the Virtual Pioneers from its humble beginnings to its present day incarnation of tours and meetings aimed at understanding history and culture from around the world.  The presentation also showcased some of the work that Virtual Pioneer educators have done in the K-12 realm.

The Three Faces of Andrew Wheelock

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ACRL-VWIG June 2016 Program

Joint session with ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries MIG

Sunday June 19, 2016  12-1:30 SLT – CVL Auditorium

Inworldz & Kitely: Librarianship in Alternative Virtual Worlds : Marie Vans

For the June program, Marie Vans shared a presentation on virtual worlds beyond Second Life, “Inworldz & Kitely: Librarianship in Alternative Virtual Worlds”. Marie Vans (Amvans Lapis in Second Life) is the director of the Community Virtual Library in Inworldz and owner of STEM4Girls island Kitely.   Marie has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Colorado State University. Marie talked about  her work in the virtual worlds Inworldz and Kitely.  She presented her experiences using STEM island in Kitely as examples of cheaper alternatives to Second Life for providing library and educational services. The presentation compared these virtual worlds to Second Life in terms of cost, prims, and other important features.

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ACRL-VWIG July 2016 Program

Joint session with ALA Virtual Communities in Libraries MIG

Sunday July  17, 2016  12-1:30 SLT – CVL Auditorium

“Supporting a Course with a Virtual World Library” with Dr. Nancy Zingrone

Nancy Zingrone of the AZIRE Library & Learning Center

 

July’s program was presented by Nancy Zingorne (Maggie Laraimore in Second Life).  Nancy has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and she talked about her experience designing, implementing and running a virtual world library for the Alvardo Zingrone Institute for Research and Education within the Chilbo Community/region of Second Life.  The AZIRE Library and Learning Center was designed  to support a MOOC on research in Parapsychology she and her husband are doing online.  She described their experience setting up a learning center in world the purpose of which was to show that real scientific research is being done about Parapsychology.

Slides on the program can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/NanZingrone/supporting-a-course-with-a-virtual-library-the-paramooc-series

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Thanks to Val Librarian Gregg for her help putting this together.