My Week with University Students

It's been a busy week for me in Second Life with the higher education community.  On Tuesday, Feb 23rd, I met with library students from the University of Maryland.  Then, on Sat, Feb 27, I gave a tour to library students from Emporia State University.  In both cases, the students wanted to learn about the library community in Second Life.

Above, I am pictured with Brenda Anderson, my colleague at the ISTE Media Specialists SIG (SIGMS), who also teaches part-time at the University of Maryland.  She projected our tour to about a dozen of her students and we walked around the Info Island and Info Island International sims to see the Community Virtual Library, the Reference Desk, the Illumination Library and other nearby library displays.  (See the Flickr pics.)

Below, I am giving a tour to Rob Gibson (far right), a library education instructor at Emporia State University in Kansas.  We also toured Info Island and Info Island International, as well as the American Library Association sim.  However, we also made a special visit to the Kansas State Library.  (See the Flickr pics.) Here we were joined by Cindy Elkhart (far left), and Rocky Vallejo, KS State Library librarian Bill Sowers (2nd from left).  Rocky showed us around the very rich immersive environment of this library and also told us about the nearby area of Rachelville, which provides a wealth of information about children's literature for teachers, youth librarians, and parents.

In each tour, the students had many questions about Second Life.  I showed them some basics of navigating Second Life, how to communicate, and how to join groups to attend later events.  We looked at cataloging in this environment, reference services, and how books and websites are shared in these virtual collections.  It is my hope that these students will continue to explore Second Life and become involved with the library community in this important, emerging technology.