by ABBEY ZENITH Photo by girlonaglide via flickr.com
ALA Chicago, a fantastic city, beautiful weather, great conference sessions and speakers, good times and good friends - what an experience!
The ALA Virtual Communities and Libraries Member Initiative Group (ALA VCL MIG) met in the Atrium of the National-Louis University campus on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on Saturday, July 11th, with about 18 people present. Approximately a dozen other librarian-avatars had gathered on ALA Island in Second Life to participate in the meeting, but, unfortunately, the in-person group was not able to get into Second Life.
The group discussed ways to reach out to more members of ALA to inform them about the realities and possibilities of librarianship and library services in virtual worlds. An interactive session (such as a create-your-avatar session) during the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in DC was discussed. A second SLymposium also was discussed. The group also had a lengthy discussion about how to sustain and advance the work of this MIG beyond summer 2010, when its initial 3-year existence will end.
On Saturday evening the group reconvened at Santorini's restaurant in Greek Town to eat, drink, and share experiences in virtual worlds and the real world.
At ALA the ACRL Board of Directors met on July 11th and approved the establishment of the ACRL Virtual Worlds Interest Group with the following statement of purpose:
To provide support and oversight for a designated volunteer to manage the Second Life presence of ACRL; to facilitate communication and collaboration for ACRL members and potential members involved in or interested in virtual worlds for professional activities; to participate in and support the activities of ACRL in virtual worlds on an ongoing basis; to advocate for ACRL and to recruit new members to ACRL in virtual worlds.
The ACRL Virtual Worlds Interest Group also has a pre-populated ALA Connect community. The ACRL Board strongly encourages all members to explore ALA Connect as a resource for virtual collaboration and welcomes feedback and suggestions for improvements that would further support member collaboration and meet technological needs.
ACRL Staff are working with ALA staff to ensure that this interest group is available as an option for ACRL members on the membership form.
Both the VCL MIG meeting and the ACRL board decision are positive indications that librarians and libraries in virtual worlds have the continuing support of ALA and ACRL, that interest in what we are doing in virtual worlds continues to grow.
The absolute best part of the conference for me and many others was the chance to meet so many Second Life librarians and volunteers in person. As Hypatia Dejavu, Alliance Virtual Library's Head of Reference stated, "So many of them were readily identifiable with their distinctive manners and personalities. While other events about SL were very positive nothing quite compared to meeting these good people for the first time, again."
AL Focus is the video home of American Libraries (AL) magazine -- the monthly magazine for ALA members. AL Focus Video Village is where you can watch AL Focus videos on ALA Island in the Second Life virtual world.
Click the screen and select *Favorites* to get the list of AL Focus videos. From the choices that appear, click the corresponding number to see the video!
Newest videos available: Christie Hefner Interview Before her Opening General Session speech at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, American Libraries spoke with former Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner about her message to librarians, her memories of Judith Krug and the important First Amendment battles they fought, and what helped her to succeed in what some would call a man's job. Wanda Urbanska Interview After her speech at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, Simple Living host Wanda Urbanska spoke with American Libraries editor Leonard Kniffel about her work with libraries and how librarians can advocate for green choices to administrators charged with monitoring the bottom line. NOTE: There is an ALFocus video of Wanda Urbanska's entire hourlong speech -- which is just too large to squeeze in here! Instead, view the speech off-world here
Sylvia Ivie at the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Sylvia Ivie, presenter of the first Coretta Scott King Book Awards, spoke to AL Focus at the 40th anniversary celebration about what the Awards have developed into and why they're still necessary. Dan Kraus at the Live @ Your Library Stage AL Focus caught up with Dan Kraus, the founder of AL Focus, current editor with Booklist magazine, and author of the forthcoming novel The Monster Variations, after his reading on the Live @ Your Library Stage at the ALA Annual Conference. Dan discusses his new book as well as the experience of being on the other side of the AL Focus cameras. NMRT (New Member Round Table) Resume Review Service Sarah Johnson, a reviewer for NMRT's Resume Review Service, discusses the program and how to participate in it, as well as some of the common resume mistakes she sees. NMRT Resume Review Service
Carl Kasell Backstage at Wait, Wait… Don't Tell Me! NPR newscaster and official judge and scorekeeper for Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! Carl Kasell spoke to AL Focus before the July 9 taping of the show, which was attended by 500 librarians. Topics included the NPR library, the First Amendment, his use of libraries as a child, and Charles Kuralt. Paula Poundstone at Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! AL Focus visited ALTAFF Spokesperson Paula Poundstone July 9 before a taping of National Public Radio's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! attended by 500 librarians. The conversation covered Poundstone's role as ALTAFF spokesperson, her kids' reading habits, The Three Stooges, the dreaded acronym game, and the horrors of math.
Mixed Reality Video: Valibrarian Gregg created a Mixed-Reality Video of SL librarians who attended the ALA conference and their Avatar counterparts.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Second Life librarians and library volunteers are going to turn out enforce for ALA Chicago’s Conference this year! For the first time we will have the opportunity to wear ribbons on our badges that say “Second Life Librarians”! If you are attending please pick these up at the Member Pavilion, booth #3034. Our ALA liaison, Tina Coleman (Kay Tarov in SL), will be on hand to meet people and pass out these ribbons. Since we don’t always know the real life names of SL librarians, this will be a fantastic way to be able to spot each other and a way to promote what we do to all conference attendees.
Many of the librarians you know and love in Second Life will be presenting. Tom Peters (SL: Maxito Ricardo) and Lori Bell (SL: Lorelei Junot) will be presenting My Avatar Will Contact Your Avatar: Virtual Worlds, Real Opportunities, Monday at 8:00 AM Central. Lori will also be presenting for the Life After 2.0 program on Saturday at 1:30 PM Central. Steven Harris (SL: Stolvano Barbosa) moderates Collection Development 2.0: The Changing Administration of Collection Development on Saturday at 3:30 PM Central. Lisa Perez will be speaking at Making Virtual Reality-Based Library Services Real for K-12 Teachers & Librarians at 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM on July 12th.
Lori Bell (SL: Lorelei Junot) and I will be signing copies of Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries: Librarians and Educators in Second Life and Other Multi-User Virtual Environments will be signing at the Information Today Inc. booth [#4525] on July 12 from 3:00 — 4:00 p.m. My apologies for other librarians, educators, and volunteers that I may have missed, I’m sure that many others will be speaking as well and I hope to catch many of these presentations,
This is the third year of the existence ALA Virtual Communities and Libraries Member Initiative Group and Tom Peters has a great line-up for the meeting in Chicago. It is a very important meeting for us to attend because we will be discussing the future of this group within ALA. This meeting will take place Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time (1:00 to 2:30 SLT) at the The Atrium of the downtown campus of National-Louis University located at 122 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. For those of you who want to attend in SL, ALA Island will be the gathering spot.
After the ALA VCL MIG meeting we're planning a dinner excursion for those who are interested. We will be meeting in the lobby of the Palmer House Hotel at 6:00 p.m. (Central Daylight Time), then venture out to eat Greek cuisine.
The ACRL Second Life Task Force sunsets this year and ACRL members have petitioned to replace it with an ACRL Virtual Worlds Interest Group. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the ACRL Second Life group! We have had some wonderful speakers and discussions and plan to have many more! I want to thank the task force members for the work they have done to help ACRL in Second Life: Esther Grassian (SL: Alexandria Knight), Brian C. Gray (SL: Brian Garfield), Alexia Hudson (SL: Donna Upshaw), Nancy Kellett (SL: Liatris Tidewater), Beth M. Transue (SL: Boolib Wunderle), and Scott Vine (SL: ScotV Lane).
We’ve made great strides in the past three years and I look forward to this conference with great excitement. It will be a thrill to meet so many of you for the first time and to see many of you again. See you in Chicago, even if you are going to be there virtually!
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Institutions & Organizations 
ALA Chicago, a fantastic city, beautiful weather, great conference sessions and speakers, good times and good friends - what an experience! 
AL Focus Video Village
Second Life librarians and library volunteers are going to turn out enforce for ALA Chicago’s Conference this year! For the first time we will have the opportunity to wear ribbons on our badges that say “Second Life Librarians”! If you are attending please pick these up at the Member Pavilion, booth #3034. Our ALA liaison, Tina Coleman (Kay Tarov in SL), will be on hand to meet people and pass out these ribbons. Since we don’t always know the real life names of SL librarians, this will be a fantastic way to be able to spot each other and a way to promote what we do to all conference attendees. 