Avatars and Second Life

Created my Meez virtual avatar. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am very familiar with virtual worlds, as I am a regular player of mmorpg.

Second Life is intriguing because of its "open sandbox" structure. By this I mean the players themselves are active participants in the creation and content of the world. In most mmorpg you are a passive participant, experiencing content created by someone else.

As is true in most things, you get out of it what you put into it. These virtual worlds can be very real but in a distorted kind of way. You are meeting and getting to know real individuals but not necessarily the "real" person. Individuals can create a whole new persona and identity in a virtual world.

There are many positive sides to this. I am aware of a number of individuals who have virtual lives who in their real life are handicapped in one way or another. Virtual worlds allow them to interact with other people in a way that their handicap is not a factor. It "levels the playing field" of the social interaction. The same can be said for age, race, gender, sexual preference, etc.

However, this begs the question: If you are not really getting to know the real person, is this a healthy interaction? Is it a sad substitute? In my opinion it all depends upon how much of your real self you let into the virtual world.

I play mmorpg for an escape. They are like going to an amusement park and meeting people who like to ride the same rides as me. I don't play them for the social interaction but that interaction inhances my experience in the virtual content.

Second Life seems to me to be an attempt to blur the difference between Real Life and Virtual Life. To somehow merge the two. Using the Virtual to address issues of the Real.

This might work for some people but for me that ruins the experience in both worlds.


PS. I should point out that even the mmorpg that I play have issues with Real Life creeping in.
Take a look at this article that talks about real world economics in a virtual world.

Online Applications and Tools

Becoming a supervisor has caused a number of things to slip through the cracks. 20 for 2.0 is one.
I hope to remedy that, catch up, and graduate some time soon.

I took a look at the Online Apps in Google Docs and Zoho and I was pretty impressed. It makes one wonder if the library system should continue to purchase the Office package for our public PCs.

Having the Office package serves a greater purpose of allowing our patrons to become familiar with those software programs (mostly for employment purposes) but in the future, if we are looking for cost cutting options, that might be one area.

Of course, the devil is in the details. I did notice that Google docs did not recognize docx files. Perhaps Microsoft did this on purpose.

Not exactly related..but I REALLY like Google Calendar. A great feature. I recommended it to my in-laws as a way to schedule a vacation property.

Search Engines

Google vs Yahoo?

My usage of these sites has changed slighty over the years. I still use both but I think I use Google a bit more now.

Yahoo has a Directory feature that i really like. It groups websites in a subject heading/yellow page heading manner. In the past I could search for a website I knew about, find out how Yahoo had placed it in their directory and then find other sites that have the same heading.

The directory feature is still there but it is not nearly has useful as it has been in the past. It feels like they are not dedicating the same effort to maintaining it and adding new links. The fact that it is no longer an option on the main page is a tell -tale sign. You now have to click on the "more" link over the search box to get there.

I still go to Yahoo for all their "added features", finding movies, news of the day, financial stuff, automobile profiles. I just have gotten used to their layout.

However, for library research I use Google. It just feels "bigger" and I just tend to eventually find sites that are not coming up in other engines. It could be that I just use Google better.

The other search engines mentioned on the 20 for 2.0 page were not terribly noteworthy. Unless I missed something I did not see how they would be any more productive than Yahoo or Google.

I think the most interesting way of comparing all these search engines is to see how they handle a search that is rich in sales potential. Seeing how they list commercial or sponsored sites is interesting.

Podcasting

The list of podcasting libraries was very handy. I quickly identified the Denver Public Library and the Kankakee Public Library. I subscribed to them via my google reader.

I listened to two from Kankakee and was impressed with their offerings. Their 2007 Poetry
Slam and a presentation by the author Christopher Paul Curtis.

This is a great way of expanding the audience for a library program to those who might be interested but could not necessary make it to the actual event.

They made me curious about any kind of waivers they had to get people to sign.

Another great example of all the amazing stuff that is out there on the internet that is sometimes "hidden".

Online Image Generators

Created an online image. It is too bad there needs to be the advertisement on the image you created. Seems to me that it would seriously limit any uses it will have.

A fun excercise.

PS. Cropped the ad out of the bottom. Much better.

Overdrive downloads

Although I have not been much of a user, I am a big fan of the downloadable content on our website.

The process itself is fairly straight forward. Our patrons who already have mp3 players and have some familiarity with the technology don't seem to have many problems.

However, in my experience we are leading some of our patrons into this technology ( a good thing ) and it is these "newbies" that are having difficulties. Getting them to download the console first is a important step. Additionally, getting them to understand that we only have a single "copy", that you can't return it early, and that the catalog always says it is Not Checked Out seem to be the biggest hurdles.

I did not find much of interest to me in the music "Pop and Rock" area nor in the Soundtrack titles available. In fact, I did not recognize most of it. That might be more of a commentary on how "out of touch" I am.

Our selection of audio books is much better. I think the nonfiction titles are a great resource for patron...especially the language instruction titles. I find myself refering to those most often.

It seems that these audio titles might still be undiscovered by our patrons. On a number of occassions I have found a title available when all the of the print and Book on CD copies are charged with waiting lists.

Social Bookmarking

I created a del.icio.us account and added a few websites from my favorites. Ones that have long URLs and at least one that took me forever to "refind" after I found it the first time.

For the librarians in the audience that URL is: http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/landmin/home/index.shtm
(Click on the map in the grid...to the right of Mining Claims Map. A clunky interface, but very powerful.)
It is a Bureau of Land Management mapping tool that allows you to search for mining claims. Very handy. With the price of gold going through the roof I have had a number of patrons who were interested in panning.

So anyway, I added them and then checked out who else had bookmarked them. I did not gain any great insights or new websites from the little poking around that I did.

I can see the value of this kind of resource for our patrons or anyone that finds themselves using lots of different PCs. (Although, you can not load the del.icio.us toolbar on the public PCs.) However, professionally I will always have access to both my personal favorites and the Snohomish Reference ones simply by logging in with that profile.

Will i ever need them at home? While away at some conference?
(My former and current supervisors will get a chuckle out of that.)
Potentially, but it sure seems like a lot of work for an odd chance.

So, in the end I don't see myself becoming a contributor to the social bookmarking world...however, I could foresee myself using it as a tool for research. I guess that makes me a parasite...taking but not contributing.

So be it.