ALA SLymposium Draws 80 Attendees (and doesn’t crash)!
The ALA Fall 2008 Second Life (SL) Symposium — called the ALA SLymposium for short — on November 8, 2008, stood firm with as many as 78 avatars on its last-minute relocation to Cybrary City, an island next door on the Second Life Information Archipelago of the Alliance Virtual Library which could better accommodate such numbers (I thought our Second Life avatar attendees would have enjoyed crowding off the stage and ending up watching our informative speakers from underneath the ALA Island waters, but I was outvoted!). ALA’s Virtual Communities and Libraries Member Initiative Group (ALA VCL MIG) worked quickly to ensure an otherwise seamless SLymposium experience, which counted over 100 registrants the day before the event.
The SLymposium drew a wide range of Second Life avatars interested in how this online virtual world can be applied to the theory and practice of librarianship, a mix of library professionals and library school students. There were attendees who have made logging in to Second Life a part of their daily routine as well as a few who had signed up as much as two years ago but had not found reason to return — until the event.
As pointed out by Steven Harris on his Collections 2.0 Blog in the entry, SL Riffing, the ALA SLymposium speakers were streamed in — courtesy of Gabriel Riel of RielRadio.org — which left the usual chat communication box free to provide instant commentary as well as ask questions in-the-moment.
Tom Peters (SL Avatar: Maxito Ricardo) opened the ALA SLymposium promptly at 8 am Pacific Standard Time (which is also Second Life Time), welcoming the attendees with a message that reflected the ideas found in more detail in his Librarianship in Virtual Worlds issue of ALA’s Library Technology Reports, exploring libraries and library-patron relationships in a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE).
Sonja Morgan (SL Avatar: Sonja Morgwain) explained how SL helps her, a librarian in a rural area, feel more connected to the profession, in providing the opportunity to speak with library workers from around the world, exponentially expanding her network of contacts and reliable resources.
Tina Coleman (ALA SL Avatar: Kay Tairov) spoke of the various library associations, including some of the state library associations, that have created a presence within SL in order to better connect with and serve their members.
Carrie Pennell (SL Avatar: Carrie Kent) spoke only half-jokingly of her early expeditions into Second Life as a librarian but not necessarily as a duly named librarian of her place of work — which she can now openly declare is Harvard. Being in SL helped her to connect with her university student patrons. (Scheduled co-presenter FT Takacs wasn’t able to appear due to being on a plane somewhere between Thailand and… not Thailand!)