My Anti-Blog

Well, I know I said I would keep posting here, but, I am so antiblog that I am not finishing this blog post.....

Well, it's over. What now? This course has opened MANY doors for me. For example, I just received an invitation from SUNY to participate in a virtual worlds research study. I am helping lead the virtual worlds initiative at work. I am writing a chapter of the ASIS&T collaborative textbook to be published next year. I was offered an opportunity to be a web editor for a professional journal. Honestly, I wouldn't have these opportunities without this course - or even this program! As I am graduating in a week (WOO-WHOO!), I am glad all of these other opportunities have materialized.

As time moves on, I hope to stay involved with FSU's iSpace in Second Life. There is so much potential there. I hope to be able to lead more SL training sessions and tours. I am looking for scripting opportunities and will have to break down and purchase some SL land!

So what's next? Well, I am applying for doctoral study in information science. (I will be asking my professors for letters of recommendation!) I would like to continue to study virtual environments and social networking. I see them as the future of education and business. As we move towards a global infocracy, ROI and reduced costs will be top of mind for businesses and organizations. The skills I have learned in this class have prepared me to be an early adopter in these areas.

Keep watching this blog as I do not plan to totally abandon it. Thanks for reading!

I decided to take Dr. Mon’s suggestion of participating in Slam the Boards on October 10, 2008. I signed up with Yedda and ChaCha. Unfortunately, it took too long to get registered with ChaCha, so I did not get to participate there. However, I was able to participate through Yedda. I set up my profile, stating I was a library grad student. My signature is: Librarians: The original search engines and publicized Slam the Boards. I answered 39 questions, listed in the notes section of this presentation. I received 68 thumbs up and was voted best answer on 28 different questions.

I truly enjoyed this experience. After I completed the registration process for ChaCha, I ended up answering quite a few questions, but not enough to "cash out" yet. I liked the resources ChaCha provides for it Guides, but did not like the fact that I could not get any feedback from patrons. Yedda allows patrons and other board readers to post their thoughts and feedback. I plan to continue answering questions as I can.

Well, I signed up for Flickr in September. On November 14, I uploaded pictures from the Second Life FSU 08 Mini-Conference. As of today, these photos are still not showing up in the public photo stream. I contacted Flickr last week and we told it would take 3-5 days to review my account since I didn't have 5 photos uploaded prior to the 14th. Well, it has been 11 days and Flickr says it will only take a few days. How frustrating! I have some pretty cool pics from the conference available and I am the only one who can see them. What is the point of a social networking/media site if no one can share my pics?!?!?!?! Booooooo Flickr!!!!!!

I have a love/hate realtionship with Goolge. I think Goolge has an excellent alogorithm and provides great results when used appropriately. I use Google, and I use it often. However, when I hear that others use Google (non-IPs), it makes my skin crawl. Without proper guidance, Google results can be disasterous. This is a tough question. Google and other search engines are so popluar with the public since it offers immediate gratification OR utter frustration. Typical users feel that the results are all they would get if they asked a librarian and if no results are found, the information must not exist. Also, the privacy of Google-searching can be desirable for many. I think it would be a great idea of Google to offer some sort of information services by partnering with libraries around the country. I think many libraries would volunteer their time in an effort to provide users with accurate and reliable results. I am not sure if this has been done or discussed, but if Googlers could click on "Ask a Librarian" directly from the search button, I think people would be more inclined to use a service like that.

The conference was a great success! I think we had about 24 people in-world for the conference, and few others who popped in and out. The slide logistics were a little tough in-world and Dr. Mon ended up changing the slides except for her presentation. I did that. I did move through slides when there were more than the presenter had time for. Also, I deleted some as we finished presentations to save time and prims. I truly enjoyed working with the staff and professors at FSU and I hope to continue to develop our relationships! (Pics to be posted soon!)

For the final part of my iSpace FSU project, I assisted Dr. Mon and other FSU Second Life developers in setting up a seating area and organizing the slide presentations.



I will also help in the November 13 mini-conference, Virtual FSU: Learning and Research in Second Life. I will help during the conference by advancing the slides in Second Life and taking questions from the audience. I am very excited about this opportunity and I hope to “see” some of you there.

I have built terminals in Virtual Strozier:



Each terminal contains links to different pages of the FSU Libraries website:
1. Strozier Library Information
2. Library Services
3. Research Help
4. Library Holdings
5. Information about other FSU Libraries

Thank you to everyone who helped make this tour a great success. I have received positive feedback regarding the content on the Island and my "tour" skills! Please make sure you check out the Island in more detail when you have the time. There are interesting games and displays, as well as a plethora of health information and resources!
Some of the highlights of the tour are:

The Path of Support
The Path of Support is central to the purpose of Healthinfo Island and all the project signs there are for many of the health support groups in Second Life. Some are RL groups such as the American Cancer Society and AA, while many started in SL by people who are trying to deal with the diseases or problems (such as the Agoraphobia support group).

To visit the Path of Support, click here for a teleport: SLRUL The Path of Support


Accessibility Center
The Accessibility Center building is the result of the group's second grant from the National Library of Medicine (actually, the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of NLM, or GMR NN/LM), and has a number of floors that each deal with different issues of accessibility. You will find links and other informational displays about learning, vision, hearing, mobility, and other disabilities.

To visit the Accessibility Center, click here for a teleport: SLURL Accessibility Center


Stroke Awareness Exhibit
The stroke awareness exhibit is a project of the Occupational Therapy Center at Jefferson in Second Life. It was developed by graduate students in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Jefferson College of Health Professions in Philadelphia, PA, USA, under the direction of Zsuzsa Tomsen (Susan Toth-Cohen in RL). The exhibit consists of 3 presentations about stroke--including types of stroke, statistics, and rehabilitation. There is a 2-question quiz after each presentation. Visitors also can collect free brain-themed prizes - t-shirts, a necklace, and a hat.

To take the Stroke Awareness Challenge, click here for a teleport: SLURL Stroke Awareness Challenge

As part of my school project, I am giving a tour of Healthinfo Island in Second Life. I would love it if some of you were able to attend. I will be using voice chat, so make sure you have a headset or speakers. For more information about Healthinfo Island, please check out this website: http://healthinfoisland.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to forward this invitation. This tour is open to the public.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/132/140/22

What is Healthinfo Island?

Funded by the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network/National Library of Medicine (GMR NN/NLM) through a grant written by Lori Bell, of the Alliance Library System, Illinois, librarians at Healthinfo Island in Second Life explore the provision of consumer health information services in a virtual environment. The island is home to a consumer health library and a medical library, as well as virtual outposts or displays run by the National Library of Medicine's Special Information Services, contractors for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and our newest building, the Accessibility Center. This center houses another GMR NN/NLM funded projectwith the aim of encouraging awareness of vision, mobility, learning, and other disabilities.

I have created several URL stations at the Virtual Strozier Library. Each station offers different information about the library. The first station is about the library and includes library hours, directions to Strozier, jobs available, and other basic information. The second station provides links to library services such as the writing center, interlibrary loan, and programs and events at the library. The third station provides research help and links to the "Ask Us" service, as well as information on subject librarians and computer tools. The fourth station has links to the library catalog, eJournals, and library databases. The fifth station has links to the different FSU libraries including the Dirac Science Library and the Goldstein Library. Come check it out! Tell me, what do you want to see at the Virtual Strozier Library??

I have volunteered to help Carolina Keats facilitate the Consumer Health Information at HealthInfo Island: The Workshop program in Health Info Island. This program introduces volunteers and others to consumer health resources, basic reference skills, health information literacy, and credibility in the reference environment. This is a great way for librarians and other information professionals to become familiar with reference work in Second Life and to learn about the wonderful resources at your fingertips!

Well, I slammed! Unfortunately, I was not able to complete the tutorials for ChaCha in time, so I slammed Yedda. That was pretty fun. Some of the questions were very challenging. I will work on my ChaCha tutorials and training to be ready for the next slam. Here is my Yedda profile ... http://yedda.com/people/9515648511381/

How cool is this concept...? Slam the Boards! is a movement that encourages reference librarians to answer questions on popular Q&A websites and answer boards such as Askville and YahooAnswers. The unique part of this effort is that the librarians make sure to let the users know they are librarians, showing quality and skill in the provided answers. The next "Slam" is this Friday, October 10, 2008. You will find me "SLAMMING" on ChaCha and Yedda!