Virtual Worlds Demand Innovative Roles and Skills from Medical Librarians

Virtual Worlds Demand Innovative Roles and Skills from Medical Librarians Patricia F. Anderson 1 , Emerging Technologies Librarian, <pfa@umich.edu>; Jane Blumenthal 1 , Director; Carol Perryman 2 , PhD; Gillian Mayman 1 , Informatics Librarian; Anne Perorazio 1 , Infopoint; 1 Health Sciences Libraries, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA 2 School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman's University, Denton, Texas, United States

Background: What is Second Life?

What is SecondLife?

Buzzwords

Virtual World

MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environment)

Metaverse

NOTE: Not a game, although may include game activities

Major relevant activities

Education (“killer app”)

Social networks --> support groups

Professional meetings, presentations, seminar series, discussion groups, etcetera

Providing information resources and references consultations

Background: Why librarians in Second Life?

Jason Griffey (via Twitter): “It’s not the tool, it’s the training. Re. SL. We need to get used to that sort of interaction, because it’s coming.”

Background: Why are we in Second Life?

Vision

Ted Hanss, UM Medical School

Jane Blumenthal, UM Health Sciences Libraries

Timeline

March 2007 - purchase

Spring & Summer - planning

August 2007 - building

September 2007 - Wolverine Island opens to select group of faculty and students

Phase One: Engagement

Context : Wolverine Island “a gleam in the eye”

Library develops team with Second Life (SL) responsibilities

1. Build SL skills

2. Discover relevant SL locations & resources

Libraries

Health & healthcare

Science

Education

3. Make connections in SL with possible mentors/partners

4. Facilitate discovery and connection for our faculty and University community.

SL: Libraries

SL: Health & healthcare

SL: Science

SLHealthy

http://slhealthy.wetpaint.com/

Phase Two: Outreach

Context: Wolverine Island in active development, portions open to restricted group, not open to campus community

Library team members collaborate with health science schools

To promote Second Life opportunities

To inform interested faculty about SL

To disseminate Second Life skill base

To develop a campus cohort with skills & interest

Initial outreach and collaboration focused on Medical School and School of Dentistry

Phase Two: Presentations

What’s a Nice Library Like Yours Doing in a Place like This?: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/whats-a-nice-library-20070731

Phase Two: Podcasts

Why Work & Teach With Second Life: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/why-work-teach-with-second-life

Phase Two: Orientations

Getting Started in Second Life: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/getting-started-in-second-life

Phase Two: Really the Real World

Face-to-face

Consultations

Private

On-demand

In offices

In Second Life

Classes

Single sessions for faculty & staff

Student cohort class taught as four session elective in Medical School

Phase Two: Video / Machinima

Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfsSGBraUhc

Phase Three: Interdisciplinary Learning Communities

Context: Wolverine Island open to campus community, alumni, and invited guests

Wolverine Island highly secured, so access must be requested even for authorized visitors

Focus on community building & engagement

Phase Two activities continue

Phase Three activities add to activity mix.

Phase 3: Dec 07 - Open

Wolverine Island open for community events

Phase 3: Dec 07 - Brownbags Begin

Every Friday at noon local time, 9am SLT

Phase 3: Events - Speakers

JJ Drinkwater - SL Community Building

Joop Zuhal - SL Teaching, Pros & Cons

Jenny Levine @ ALA

Caia Alter - Pharmacy Research Labs

Phase 3: Events - Tours

Dante Project

InfoIsland International

Nursing Education Simulator (NESIM)

Play2Train

Phase 3: Classes & Professional Presentations

Basic Clothing Design Class: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/basic-clothing-design-in-second-life

Enriching Scholarship 2008

S’Lang Health event: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/sl-healthy-slang

Virtual Worlds, Libraries, Education, Museums: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/whatcha-gonna-do-an-academic-health-sciences-library-in-second-life-embraces-new-roles-298438/

Phase 3: Opening the Library

Ground Level: Freebies, Food Court

Main Level: Service Desk, Guides, Casual Seating, Fireplace, Games

Mezzanine: Exhibits

Top Level:Small Group Study Space with Public Slide Viewers / Social Space, Dance Floor

Phase 3: Outworld

Community building with other social technology & media tools

Flickr

Blogs

Wiki

Google Calendar

Phase 3: More Machinima

http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/about/videos. html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wDl5suE2Uo

Phase 3: More Presentations

http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/about/videos.html

Phase 4: Connect RL to SL

Core library functions – how do these translate into virtual worlds?

Collaborations with our academic environment

Grand Opening events and activities — “Wolverine Island Kickoff”

Real Life Patrons (est.)

Second Life Patrons (est.)

HSL - What do we do?

Pics of circulation, reference desk, stacks, new journals, and patrons at computers

HSL - What do we do? RL SL Circulation X Collections X Document Delivery X Reference desk hours X Reserves X

SL - Why not?

Other libraries offer reference and reading collections in SL

Not enough trained staff

Not enough demand

HSL - What else do we do? RL SL Instruction X X Liaison services X X Resource guides X X Troubleshooting X X

Instruction in RL

Instruction in SL

SL guides & handouts

SL Troubleshooting

Installation, updates, permissions

Local tech support

Highly secure tech environments

Teleporting requires network access to adjacent “pipes”

Voice/video/versions

Videocards

Who ya gonna call?

HSL - What else do we do? RL SL Community space X X Events & speakers X X Exhibits X X Research & grants X ? Small group working spaces X X

Events

Pics from events for the SLUM Brown Bag series - Demo of Play2Train space; self-guided tour of Genome Island; putting on school colors for a winter tour of Wolverine Island, a gaming event, invited speaker JJ Drinkwater

Exhibits

HSL - What else do we do? RL SL Library tours X X World tours X Tools – Information X X Tools – Building, coding X Vendors & ‘sales’ X

Tours

Tools

Vendors

HSL - What else do we do? RL SL Free clothes, hair, skin, and a food court, too! X Game days X Maize & Blue (“Spirit”) Shop X Parties & Dance floor X Patient support group X

Other

Food court and patient support group

Who we are

Volunteers from the HSL staff

Liaisons

Infopoint (Reference)

More than shown here

Our Library

Ground Level

Casual seating (“Mysti” tables)

Food court

Freebie vendors

Maize & Blue “Spirit” Shop

SL tools & utilities vendors

Main Floor

Welcome signs and library desk

Fireplace & chess table

Comfortable seating

Tutorials

Staff SL presentation archive

Mezzanine

Exhibits and displays

Roof

Small group work space

Open whiteboards

Dancefloor

Event space

Example skills used

Editing furniture & scripts

Making freebie givers

Event planning and coordination

Recruiting speakers

Mixing sit poses for seating areas

Graphic design

Setting up vendors

Doing slide presentations

Clothing design

Orientation Island, again & again

Campus Communities in Collaboration

Health programs

Medical School (SL/RL)

School of Dentistry (SL/RL)

Department of Kinesiology (SL/RL)

School of Public Health (SL/RL)

College of Pharmacy (SL/RL)

School of Nursing (RL)

Non-health programs

Computer Sciences

Dearborn Campus

Distance Learning

Literature, Sciences & Arts (Foreign Languages, Writing)

Libraries

School of Information

Unspecified

Wolverine Island Kickoff

Flyer

Wolverine Kickoff

Ted Hanss

Gus Rosania

Sharon Murphy

Sheri Jaffurs

Off-Campus Communities & Collaborations

Healthcare Education

Ohio State University

Pathfinder Linden

Healthinfo Island, part of the Alliance Library System based in Illinois

Carolina Keats

Virtual Abilities Inc, a SL community of persons with special needs

Abilities Commons

Gentle Heron

Organizing for America

Siri Vita

Rewards

Collegial activities with other campuses and institutions (Ann Arbor + Dearborn)

Awareness & visibility

Learning & engagement

Collaboration & sharing

Costs ($$) borne by others (mostly)

Identified as community leaders

Second Life is its own reward

Lessons learned 1

The power of the freebie

The essential goodness of human nature

(but one bad apple can spoil a lot of people’s day)

There is no limit to imagination

(but there is to time and ability)

Presence first, then space

The importance of being flexible and responsive

Ask what is most needed

Don’t make plans before you build skills

When you do make plans, make backup plans

Lessons learned 2

“ No man is an island” – especially in SL!

Team building

Team playing

Neighbors

Friends

Colleagues

Community

Strangers

Whatcha gonna do?

Strip to your underwear to teach a class

Do Tai Chi on the roof

Make a dance floor from pics of human cells

Become a skeleton, then a “muscle” man

Who knows?

When all else fails … dance

Contact Information

Patricia F. Anderson, [email_address] , Perplexity Peccable

Jane Blumenthal, [email_address] , Wrenaissance Jewell

Health Sciences Libraries Resources

Web: http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/slideshows/

Blog:

http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/hsl/

http://healthscienceandlibraries.info

Wolverine Island Resources

Blog: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/slum/

Pics: http://flickr.com/groups/slum/

Wiki: http://slum.wetpaint.com/

NOTE: Wolverine Island is not currently open to the public.

Presentation Resources

These slides are available at:

http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscienceslibraries/

Video:

http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/about/videos.html

Virtual Worlds Demand Innovative Roles and Skills from Medical Librarians

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