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