Fall 2007 Project

This semester I am working on research and development of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game called Second Life (SL). The mentor for this work is Jon Winet, director of the Intermedia program at UI.

SL is a virtual world comprised of avatars. Avatars are virtual characters you control in order to search around SL. The program has the look and feel of a video game. However, various educational institutions (such as Harvard and Stanford) have used SL as an outlet for recruiting new students and holding lectures. Mutliple libraries have also established their presence within SL. Virtual library users are able to interact with reference librarians as well as browse online library catalogs.

Our goal is to establish a presence on Second Life for both the UI Virtual Writing University - Experimental Wing and the SLIS program at the University of Iowa.  To help achieve this goal, we would like to:

1) provide a space in Second Life for book readings from Iowa Writer’s Workshop faculty and graduates. These recordings are housed in the Virtual Writing Universtiy Archive.

2) provide a space for virtual office hours with James Elmborg and other interested members of the library community (both working librarians and library school faculty members).