Rachelville

The story of Rachelville and all that the 'worker's' of Rachelville do amazes me. After class on Wednesday, I've become officially hooked on Second Life and all that it offers. Second Life brings together people of all walks of life, in ways that can't be done without the internet. It's a great education tool, as long as it is used as a method to further good things in society then I am a firm believer that Second Life should be used to educate and interest. When I went in Rachelville earlier today, they've decorated for Halloween. Go on take a look. I love the pumpkins.

For my Outreach project, I'm going to be creating a MySpace page as a promotional tool for the IPL. I have to iron out a lot of the behind the scenes riff raff, i.e. what email address to use when I sign up, password, what kind of information the IPL wants on the page. I don't want to step on any toes or do anything that the IPL doesn't deem as important or necessary. I want this to turn into something that helps them out and I can't wait to get started. I've spent lots of time locating as many of the libraries on MySpace that I can, and I have plans of creating a Group for the IPL and inviting people to join. So I have to email Dr. Mon to see if she knows who I should contact about logistics, and then time to have fun :)

I wanted to write that normal chat lectures irritate me because I find myself not being...well me. I don't speak up in chat classes, where in a normal lecture, I'm usually the one to answer all the questions. I have afear that all these people will see what I'm typing and deem me unimportant or unworthy of their attention. Which, of course, logically would not be the case. But, in Second Life I felt a little more comfortable being me, or mellyrosie. Even when I wasn't looking at what other people where looking at (which is totally me in real life as well, I have a huge problem focusing) I still felt more, well, more a part of things than I do in the BlackBoard chat rooms. I dont feel involved enough, even throughout the whole degree program, and for learners like me I dont know that I would recommend the online route. I try to make a conscious effort, at least in group discussions to not be the silent member. I attempt to make my voice heard. But it is frustrating for someone who is usually so vocal to feel almost as though they have lost their voice. Lost all means to communicate what they are feeling. I hope other professors try to explore other options, like Second Life, because it is certainly a valid form of communication.

I want a simple life like that

We met this week in Second Life. It was such fun. Well, except for the fact that I couldn't seem to stop running into people no matter what I did. I guess, just like in real life, I need to learn to hang back until I'm sure of what I'm doing, so I don't hurt anyone :) It was fun too, to be able to take a class picture of all of our avatars ... I hope I'll have more of a chance to explore Second Life in the future. I'm hoping to bring my mom into the world of Second life....I think she'll really like talking and hanging out with me on the Internet....

I was reading some articles this week on Second Life and other online social network/gaming type sources of entertainment. And it was mentioned in class that there are people who look at SecondLife as a form of their real life, which seems slightly disturbing. I've always been slightly disturbed that people can take the Internet and use it to substitute normal human interaction. Don't get me wrong, I think the Internet is an amazing and wonderful thing, but it is almost like a drug. And drugs form addictions. They need to be used in moderation. Drugs kill Brain Cells :)

So....


So many things to talk about float about care about, that I don't know where to start. This class is fast becoming the only one I seem to care about!!! Hurray for Dr. Mon. Boo for me and my GPA. There are so many things that I want to do for my project, so many directions. I can't focus.

But...Team Outreach
Patricia and I met last night. We're such a small team (hopefully one more strong member) so we must keep ourselves to projects that are attainable. And not take off more than we can chew or however the adage goes. The two ideas we're trying to narrow down are

1.) Creating pages on social networking sites to promote the IPL. Sites such as MySpace, Face Book etc that can appeal to YA's and perhaps get them more interested into what the IPL has to offer. This idea might be more realistic due to the size of our group. But, having MySpace and Facebook, I realize that these might not be too difficult to set up. I might be able to do a solid job in a couple rainy afternoons.

2.) Creating either a little search window, or a link, that public libraries can put on their websites that will swoosh their users right on over to the IPL and all its fabulousness. This, alas, seems very daunting. I know next to nothing about html ( I can edit a wiki and that's it) and then all the contact we'd have to have with librarians. We'd never get this all the way done. Maybe we could just concentrate on a set number of libraries---maybe links in major libraries in major cities? What does the IPL think about this? Do they want us to do this?


WE had questions about the parameters. Where we're allowed to go exactly. Hopefully, we can get going though. It's going to be lots of work :)

love in reading,
melanie

It is what it is

So I've been attempting to get back into the IPL's graces so that I can help them out and answer questions. It's been a little slower than I thought, I think probably because they are so busy with new trainee ordeals and all, but I really just needed to know if I need to answer a training question again or if my account can be reactivated. Hopefully before class next Wednesday I'll be able to get back into it. We had a really good and interactive presentation on archiving for the IPL in class last week. It got me thinking about all the behind the scenes stuff that naive users like me never realize has to go on. I always get annoyed when I click on a link and it doesn't go anywhere, it must take so much work to keep these sites active and valid. Maybe from now on, if I come across a link that doesn't work, I'll take the time to email someone and let them know, instead of getting frustrated with it.

After the presentation on Wednesday, class was just .... done. I always like a reminder of what needs to be done before next class (I guess I'm used to being babysat). Welcome to the real world Melanie!!! I'm having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things this semester, I knew taking the summer off was a bad idea. Seriously, I've managed to procrastinate on all the work I need to do by doing anything else possible. Anyone else having this issue? Or am I the only slacker out there?

Anyways.....


Community outreach for the IPL. Where do I want to see this going? Someone in our group had a great idea and I've been mulling it around. Is there someway we could get libraries nationwide to provide a link to the IPL on their homepages? Maybe a pretty little box that says, having trouble finding the answer to your questions.....ask the IPL? Ok so obviously that's not what it would say, but somewhere along those lines. What if we could get all the libraries to put this somewhere, maybe even link to it from their search engines? I also want to work on helping the IPL appeal to YA's (young adults). But how????

So many questions, still so easy to procrastinate. I'll get on it, I promise.

IPL

I was so indecisive this semester in choosing the last class I wanted to take. But the second I saw that LIS 5916 (Virtual Reference Environments) was going to be working with the IPL and Second Life, I knew that this course was going to be a good one for me. I worked with the IPL last semester in Dr. Gross' LIS 5603, and while I got off to a rocky start, I ended up wishing I'd get to work further with the organization. I think the concept of the IPL is fantastic, I just wish more people knew how valuable a reference tool it can be!!!


Which....... is why I volunteered to help out the Community Outreach Team. The IPL needs excited people working on its behalf! Already within the group, I think we'll be able to vibe and come up with great ideas to benefit the IPL. I'm especially interested in the concept of using social networking sites (such as Facebook, MySpace etc) to promote the IPL to users who might not have been aware of the tools that the IPL is offering. I created a Wiki last semester on libraries using MySpace to promote their offerings to young adults and learned how much success these libraries are having at least at getting young adults interested and using the tools that are available. Ask any young adult today what reference tools they use on the Internet....I wonder how many will say that their local libraries home page are useful? How about if we got them thinking that the IPL's website should be their jumping off point.

I hope our group can work cohesively (once we figure out who's going to stay on it)..... I'm excited to be working for the IPL...


Melanie