Whatcha Gonna Do?: An Academic Health Sciences Library in Second Life Embraces New Roles

Slide 1: Whatcha Gonna Do?: An Academic Health Sciences Library in Second Life Embraces New Roles Perplexity Peccable (PF Anderson); Gillian Oh (Gillian Mayman ); Kaiya Qunhua (Anne Perorazio); and Wrenaissance Jewell (Jane Blumenthal) University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries ©2008 Regents of the University of Michigan. All rights reserved.

Slide 2: About Academic Health Sciences Libraries  Primary roles are to support the core functions of the academic and healthcare institutions they serve.  Education Collections  Research Services  Clinics Instruction  Service/Outreach Reference  For more information:  Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries: http://www.aahsl.org  Medical Library Association: http://www.mlanet.org

Slide 3: University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries (HSL)  Multiple physical locations  Taubman Medical Library  Public Health Library and Informatics  Dentistry Library  One identity  Now also …  Wolverine Island Library

Slide 4: UM HSL Homepage  http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/

Slide 5: Wolverine Island  March 2007 - purchase  Spring & Summer - planning  August 2007 - building  September 2007 - Wolverine Island opens to select group of faculty and students

Slide 6: Transitioning to a New Environment, part 1  March 2007  “Get ready! We’re going into Second Life”  “By the way, you’ll be teaching”  Spring & Summer 07  Exploring science, health, library & education locations in Second Life  Learning Second Life skills  August 07  Dental school dean requests a video to show other dental school deans … in 3 days.

Slide 7: Our 3-Day Video

Slide 8: Transitioning to a New Environment, pt. 2  September 07  Library promotes Second Life events to campus community via blogs and email  October 07  University of Michigan Medical School has an elective course in Second Life  Library observes and assists  December 07  Library co-hosts the first campus event in Second Life with Medical School and School of Dentistry

Slide 9: 1st Brown Bag - Dec 7, 2007

Slide 10: The Birth of SLUM  SLUM - Second Life @ the University of Michigan  Weekly “brown bag” events  Tours, local speakers, invited speakers, classes, discussions, freebies, swapmeets  Communication  Blog, wiki, in-world groups, campus email groups

Slide 11: SLUM Blog

Slide 12: SLUM Wiki

Slide 13: Transitioning to a New Environment, part 3  Oops! But what about the library?

Slide 14: Whatcha gonna do with the … Library?

Slide 15: HSL - What do we do?  Pics of circulation, reference desk, stacks, new journals, and patrons at computers

Slide 16: HSL - What do we do? RL SL Circulation X Collections X Document Delivery X Reference desk hours X Reserves X

Slide 17: SL - Why not?  Other libraries offer reference and reading collections in SL  Not enough trained staff  Not enough demand

Slide 18: HSL - What else do we do? RL SL Instruction X X Liaison services X X Resource guides X X Troubleshooting X X

Slide 19: Instruction in RL

Slide 20: Instruction in SL

Slide 21: SL guides & handouts

Slide 22: 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?

Slide 23: 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 X X spaces

Slide 24: 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

Slide 25: Exhibits

Slide 26: 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

Slide 27: Tours

Slide 28: Tools

Slide 29: Vendors

Slide 30: HSL - What else do we do? RL SL Free clothes, hair, skin, X and a food court, too! Game days X Maize & Blue (“Spirit”) X Shop Parties & Dance floor X Patient support group X

Slide 31: Other  Food court and patient support group

Slide 32: HSL - Who do we serve? (RL) NOTE: All percentages are estimates.

Slide 33: HSL - Who do we serve? (SL)* * Wolverine Island is currently closed to the public, except by invitation

Slide 34: Who we are  Volunteers from the HSL staff  Liaisons  Infopoint (Reference)  More than shown here

Slide 35: Our Library

Slide 36: Ground Level  Casual seating (“Mysti” tables)  Food court  Freebie vendors  Maize & Blue “Spirit” Shop  SL tools & utilities vendors

Slide 37: Main Floor  Welcome signs and library desk  Fireplace & chess table  Comfortable seating  Tutorials  Staff SL presentation archive

Slide 38: Mezzanine  Exhibits and displays

Slide 39: Roof  Small group work space  Open whiteboards  Dancefloor  Event space

Slide 40: 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

Slide 41: 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

Slide 42: 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, than 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

Slide 43: Lessons learned 2  “No man is an island” – especially in SL!  Team building  Team playing  Neighbors  Friends  Colleagues  Community  Strangers

Slide 44: 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?

Slide 45: When all else fails … dance

Slide 46: Contact Information  Patricia F. Anderson, pfa@umich.edu  Perplexity Peccable

Slide 47: Health Sciences Libraries Resources  Web: http://www.lib.umich.edu/hsl/  Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscie nceslibraries/slideshows/  Blog:  http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/hsl/

Slide 48: 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.

Slide 49: Presentation Resources  These slides are available at:  http://www.slideshare.net/umhealthscience slibraries/  Video:  Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=EfsSGBraUhc