Tuesday Session – Virtual Worlds & Libraries

In this session three speakers discussed the role of Second Lifein libraries.  Lori Bell, Director of Innovation, Alliance Library System – Shawn McCann, Immersive Librarian, McMaster University – Jeremy Kemp, Assistant Director of the Second Life Campus of San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science.

Highlights:

• Second Life Stats – 10 million avatars registered
• A new place for libraries to provide services
• Shawn McCann discussed his position as Immersive Librarian for McMaster University
  • He has traditional library duties, but is also responsible for looking at gaming and virtual worlds and how to use these in higher education.
• Jeremy Kemp discussed San Jose Universities Second Life campus and how it is being used for distance education

It was very interesting to see these virtual worlds in action.  So how many of you have avatars in Second Life?

I also attended several sessions on E Learning.  All had great ideas and tools for delivering workshops and training to librarians and students.