by DULCIE MILLS
Photos by VERDE OTAARED
Machinima by PIA KLAAR

On Sunday, November 15, RezLibris Magazine hosted a formal party at the Jazz Cat to celebrate one year of publishing a magazine for librarians and educators in Second Life.  Music was provided by Radio Riel, a custom-made cake was shared with guests, and the publisher presented a speech (reprinted below) along with awards to the staff.  The highlight of the evening was a fireworks display celebrating both the one year birthday of the magazine and the third Rez Day of its founder. 

Anniversary Party Speech by Dulcie Mills

Before I begin, I'd just like to thank a few people for making this party possible. 
First, I'd like to thank Vienna James, our PR Director who took a break from finishing her dissertation to help us set it up and designed the beautiful invitation poster, the podium I am using, and many of the other decorations;
I'd also like to thank Mucaro India, our new PR Assistant, who helped send out the invitations and selected the baker who made the beautiful and delicious custom cake which I hope you all will help yourself to a slice of later. 
A big thanks as well goes to Clark Abismo, the founder of RezLibris, for creating the award trophies and for his patience with the last-minute adjustments he needed to make to their design.
Also, I want to thank Soleil Snook our DJ from Radio Riel who will be playing some great music for our listening and dancing pleasure.

There are three reasons we are celebrating tonight.  The last is a surprise that will be revealed later, but I can explain the first two now. 
First, it's the one year anniversary that the first issue of RezLibris was published.  It says a lot that a few of us have stuck with this huge project for what is such a length of time in SL. 
I think we deserve a party just for that -- lol (and definitely some stiff drinks, ha ha).
Another reason we are celebrating, and I hope it will be a celebration and not a sad event, is the start of something new for RezLibris. 
But starting something new also means ending something old .  We had a  lot of great plans, not all of which we could do, most of which we couldn't, but many of which we gave a darn good try. 
We came a long way from when we first met as a small group after Clark Abismo's announcement on the Librarians of Second Life group's list. 
We had some great people join and support us.  Lorelei Junot, of course, was our biggest supporter as she has been for all the librarians on Info Island. 
She granted us our office space which Sonja Morgwain has kindly continued. 
Eirene Janus, our website manager, donated web space to us and has been maintaining it so excellently for us for a whole year. 
Verde Otaared and Pia Klaar, our multimedia editors, have taken a huge number of photos and video for each story and worked hard to edit, process, and place them in the magazine in an attractive layout. 
All the editors, writers, and contributors have worked so hard and devoted so much time to this project that I want to thank them all. 
None of us made very much monetarily or had many compliments or feedback from the public, although we had some heartfelt ones and know you all appreciated our work. 
Most of our rewards came from our enjoyment of sharing the wonderful activities going on in the library community and getting to know all the great people here better. 

Recently, after suffering from some health problems, I began to realize that I could no longer keep up the time commitment and responsibility of being publisher for RezLibris,
so I announced to the staff that December would be my last issue but that I would be happy to continue to write and contribute if they decide to continue the magazine. 
This has not been an easy decision because RezLibris has been like my child.  But no matter what happens, I have enjoyed the experience and learned a lot from it, and I know all of the staff have, too. 
Is there an animation for crying? 

Before I step down here and hope that you all turn this into a happy party and not a sad one, I want to call some people up on stage for awards because, even though we're not ending our story,
we are starting a new chapter, and I'd like to show my appreciation for what you've all contributed so far.
But I can't take credit for the Rezzie Awards.
The idea was Clark's that he thought of at about the same time Lori was planning the Golden Leaf Awards. 
He wanted to have a celebration similar to the Oscars where a tribute could be paid to staff members for their work that wasn't always recognized even though it was always appreciated.
I am not calling everyone, although all members of the Board will get an award and also some of our writers and other contributors. 
But since I don't want to spend too much time and some people couldn't be here, I am just calling a few people up. 
It doesn't mean that any of the others contributed any less or are any less appreciated, so please understand.
When I call you, please come to the stage and click on the large RezLibris trophy next to me.  It will give you a folder containing a smaller version that you can wear.
No long speeches are necessary, but feel free to say a few words if you'd like.

First, I want to call Lorelei Junot who we can't thank enough for all her support.  Please come up to the stage for your Rezzie, Lori.
I would've called Abbey Zenith next  who has been our most prolific writer of our AVL column. 
But, unfortunately, due to a family emergency, she could not be with us. 
Neither could our wonderful website manager, Eirene Janus.  Both ladies are truly worthy of Rezzies and will receive one after the awards.
Now I'd like to call Verde Otaared, our Photo editor, who produced top quality professional photos for the magazine and recently started editing our Health and Science section. 
Verde is also a wonderful writer and used to help me with the M2, too. 
Please come to the stage and take your Rezzie, Verde.
I'd also like to call Pia Klaar, our multimedia and Education editor, who took excellent machinima and edited our education section. 
We have a Rezzie here for you, Pia.
Now I'd like to call Vienna James, our PR Director, who is just finishing her dissertation and helped put this party together.
Please come up for your Rezzie, V.
Also to the stage I'd like to call Mucaro India, our new PR Assistant, who has been doing a great job so far. 
Here is a Rezzie for you, Mucaro.
I'd also like to call Leeorie Alter, our contributing News Editor, who was one of the original founding editors. 
Our current news editor, Bookie Balogh, could not be with us tonight. 
Come to the stage for your Rezzie, Lee.
We also have a rezzie for our fashion columnist, Hyacinth Cortes. 
Please accept your Rezzie, Hy.
Another regular writer for us, Carina Gonzalez, can come to the stage now for her Rezzie.
Last but not least, I'd like to call Clark Abismo who thought of the crazy idea of starting a magazine for librarians in Second Life in the first place
and was as stubborn as I was to start it and keep it going this long. 
Clark also designed the award, so I'm sure he'll be happy to get one - lol.
Please come on up for your Rezzie, Clark.

Now if all the Rezzie awardees can just come back on stage for one minute, I've asked Verde to take a group photo
and then we can start the party.
One final thing -
please set your view to midnight and join us in wishing Clark a Happy 3rd rez day! 
Surprise, Clark.  Your rez day is the third thing we are celebrating tonight.

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Text by ABBEY ZENITH
Photo by VERDE OTAARED

We have been through some amazing changes in the last three and a half years since Lori Bell, Lorelei Junot in SL, claimed a small parcel of SL real estate to create a library and began to explore what place libraries could do in virtual worlds.  The parcel became a sim, the sim became an archipelago, and librarians and libraries from all over the world joined in Lori’s quest.  Alliance Library Systems, of Peoria IL, supported this exploration through Lori and achieved phenomenal success.  Alliance Virtual Library (AVL), the heart of the Information Archipelago (IA) is today a thriving community of librarians, library staff, library students, educators and other professionals who share a common vision of service, education, and creativity often transcending national, cultural, and language boundaries.  At AVL we have created locations in Second Life where visitors can find reference services, resources, exhibits, and events that attract, delight, and inform.  SL residents looking for help, information, conversation, and purpose discover places that offer all of this and much more.   We have grown in size and stature, in skills and in confidence.  The nurture that Lori and ALS provided on this journey has sustained us and now many groups are stepping up to maintain what has been created by directly owning and managing sims in the IA.   Adra Letov, member of the AVL Advisory Board aptly described this change as “representing a maturing of the IA and a healthy transition to full community management.”

As we move toward the a name change from Alliance Virtual Library to Community Virtual Library in 2010, we find that we are spending a lot of time reflecting on what this change means.  We certainly aren’t changing the formula that has worked so well – the mix of services, resources, and events, nor the foundations we’ve built under Lori’s leadership.  We aren’t changing our support of librarians and educators; if anything we are deepening that support with more resources than ever before for those professionals using SL.  The Learning Curve orientation area, along with the Second Life Resource Center, and classes to teach skills, are all a part of our commitment to helping those interested in developing a place for themselves or their organizations in SL.  We are going to be the same people, in the same place, offering the same services, but with a new name, Community Virtual Library,  and with that name, a renewed dedication to becoming a virtual library for all of SL.

To do this we not only want to continue the work of volunteers over the last few years, but to work in collaboration with other Second Life Libraries, understanding that within the library community we each have areas of expertise and interests and together we can support each other in outreach to the residents of SL. 

In these years of exploration and discovery the creative initiative and the skills of AVL volunteers have grown and we have reached a point where we are confident about what we have to offer SL residents in many diverse communities.  Now we have the “know-how” and we want to emphasize what we have to offer throughout SL.  We want to reach out to residents and provide not only services and resources that they can use but a place that they can connect to others.

More than ever we want to be a place of connection with informal discussion, spontaneous events, with many people and groups working together.  Some of the most powerful events and exhibits produced on the IA have been in response to community needs:  a 9/11 exhibit that Lori created early on; a tribute to the students of VA Tech created by SL residents; the hot topics discussions that touch on both real life and SL issues; a US election returns gathering; and many more such as these have drawn residents of SL to AVL and many have remained as volunteers.

This is the kind of community library we want to develop, one that is built on relationships.  Like visiting your local library and knowing that they understand your taste in novels, we want residents of SL to visit us again and again, knowing that we understand their interests in this virtual world.  In order to this we need to make connections with residents one-on-one, to listen and to learn from them, to welcome them to our sims and be among them in places they gather.  We need to ask more questions, take more notes, develop more relationships, welcome more feedback, be more responsive – this is our direction. This is the picture of our future growth, not outer expansion but inner development that meets the needs of SL residents and in turn provides a ripe field of endeavor for a library community poised and ready to serve.

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Text by BOOKIE BALOGH

Library Bluebird
Photo by Abbey Zenith

Partly a plan to move the Information Archipelago to another stage in its development and partly a result of economic stringencies, the Alliance Library System (parent of the AVL) had to make the difficult decision to cut back.  It is retaining Investing and Innovation Island, but will no longer be the sponsor of the other major islands (Information, Information Island International, and Imagination).

As major managers and departments heads of the core sims, Hypatia Dejavu, Abbey Zenith and Rocky Vallejo will run the CVL as a nonprofit corporation to oversee the core Information Archipelago.  Each of the three will retain a programmatic role within all the sims, and simultaneously will oversee one sim: Zenith will be head of public events and will oversee Information Island; Vallejo will be head of collections and will oversee Imagination Island; and Dejavu will be head of information services and will oversee Information Island International.

While the division of responsibility of the sims among the three is designed to identify a ‘go-to’ person for each sim, a new concept is the establishment of the Library Bluebird, an administrative avatar who will be the owner of record of the three sims.  As Dejavu describes it, “he is essentially an alt of all three of the administrators.  Any of the three of us can log in as the owner and handle [administrative issues].”  Vallejo said, “The Bluebird is all of us.. and yet each of us.. at the same time. Bluebird will "own" the sims. That means if there is a property group name change Bluebird will do that task... but that task can be done by Samantha, Rhonda or Bill (RL names).”

For the ordinary SL avatar, whether librarian, educator or member of the general public, little will change.  According to Zenith, “we want to keep things as they are; of course there are always changes...but there have always been changes as we have gone along.” Existing programs such as the sci-fi portal, the genealogy center and the mystery manor, as examples, will remain as they are.  There will be new opportunities for SL residents, as the triumvirate wishes to step back and open up new roles for volunteers to take advantage of.  Dejavu says “We just hope to provide a good environment for librarians and library lovers to learn and socially interact, just as any good community library does.”

Rocky Vallejo, Abbey Zenith, and Hypatia Dejavu
Photo by Hypatia Dejavu

From a governance perspective, there will continue to be an advisory board, although it will be expanded, initially by three people.  A position of special advisor will be created for certain allied SL librarians who run major projects outside the core islands – initially Lorelei Junot and JJ Drinkwater.

So, change is coming, but in this case, the big difference will be that the project will not be overseen by a RL library.  Most residents of SL will not notice a difference unless there is need to communicate with the owners or administrators of the various islands.  As Zenith says, “We hope for good things!”

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As librarians in Second Life, we have had a lot of success.  We have learned skills, built libraries, offered library services, published papers, and given presentations. We have reached out to new segments of library users and non-users in SL and reached out to each other creating networking, collaboration, and professional development opportunities. We feel good about what we have accomplished and we should!  Still we come up against adversity in the real life library world.  With budgets being slashed and people losing jobs, it is easy to understand the tension in our profession.  But this is a time to pull together and to use whatever means we have available to strengthen our profession.

I was recently rebuffed on a librarian listserve for suggesting Second Life to librarians who were seeking ways to meet virtually.  Those of us who constantly use Second Life in this way understand the richness that a 3D environment adds to a virtual meeting.  It is so much closer to being present in a real life meeting than text chat or and so much more comfortable than video or teleconferencing.  The meetings and professional development events I have attended in Second Life have been very rewarding.   There is a real sense of the people behind the avatars and a better chance to make your voice heard in the group.  In text chat it is easy to get lost in the jumble of words and ideas, while in Second Life, you have a visual representation of who is talking as they talk or chat in text which makes it much easier to feel involved.  Video conferences can be very intimidating to those uncomfortable on camera. Teleconferences are often dominated by the most outspoken participants and if there are several participants it is difficult to get a real sense of who is speaking.  These are all valid and useful ways to conduct virtual meetings, but using a virtual world is as well, so why dismiss it out-of-hand?

Fear and misunderstanding. The much touted learning curve keeps some people from attempting to use Second Life.  Someone told me once that she was used to being the most technologically savvy person on staff.  She was always the one that other people went to for help, but when she came into Second Life she had to begin where we all started, as a “newbie” which was uncomfortable for her.  She persevered and was rewarded by expanding her skills and her networking capabilities through Second Life.

If librarianship in virtual worlds isn’t something someone wants to participate in, that is understandable.  Some of us don’t want to instruct or catalog, but we sure respect those that do!  I know the difference here is that the use of virtual worlds isn’t prevalent throughout libraries, but it has gained a great deal of ground in the past few years and is accepted and used by many libraries and academic programs worldwide.  It isn’t for everyone, or every institution, but those that do are doing valued work.  And yes, it is work.  We combat the "It is just a game" battle too.

It is always a surprise to meet a librarian who hasn’t heard of Second Life or isn't aware of librarian accomplishments in virtual worlds.  It is easy to understand those people’s reticence.  It isn’t as easy to understand the “haters.”  We have encountered these since the beginning. There has been a perception that some of us were being paid to play a game instead of do “real” library work, but we have the facts and stats now to combat that misconception.

We have the same goals and we apply the same standards in Second Life as we do in real life.  We carefully select resources, we create catalogs and guides to enable access to these resources, we plan events to highlight resources, we offer reference services, and we promote the profession and real life libraries to those we come in contact with in Second Life.  I have been told countless times that we have given people an exciting new perspective on libraries and librarians. By continuing to do just what we do, we will continue to win acceptance and wider respect among our peers.  Keep publishing, keep presenting, keep answering those questions, and keep showing the profession that we have something to offer – not only to our patrons, but to each other.

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