university of kentucky libraries in second life

The Future is Now: Libraries and Museums in Virtual Worlds, March 2010 University of Kentucky Libraries

Virtual Collaboration: Exhibits & Educational Events at the

University of Kentucky Libraries

Cheri Daniels (Sifriya Devin in SL)Beth Kraemer (Alice Burgess in SL)


UK’s Young Library Our main library building in both worlds!

Used for exhibits & events on the University of Kentucky’s Second Life Island


Island and Library Background The University of Kentucky

has had a presence in Second Life since January, 2008.

Library activities have focused primarily on events and exhibits as well as providing information and support for Second Life users on campus.


Our People UK Libraries Avatars

include: • Buffy Alcott• Charisse Apfelbaum• Alice Burgess• Sifriya Devin• Erimentha Hitendra• Ginevra Merlin• Mallori Nightfire • Bambi Yokosuka The Libraries have more active Second Lifers involved in

our University island than any other group on campus!


Events and Exhibits The next several slides will highlight a number of

different events and exhibits created or managed by the UK Libraries in Second Life.


Party Like a Politician In May 2008, the Libraries

hosted a “Rock the Vote”-style event to promote participation in the KY primary election.

Representatives of political campaigns in Second Life attended.

We also included voter registration information and a small exhibit of Kentucky elections of the past.


University of KY Island: Celebrating our First Semester

This exhibit described our experiences creating a university island.

The content included island policy documents, event descriptions & images and more.

August 2008; Curators: Alice Burgess & Sifriya Devin


Stitching Pieces of Time: Kentucky Quilting Traditions and The Wade Hall

Quilt Collection

As a means of celebrating our rich folk art traditions of Kentucky, this exhibit focused on the art of quilt making.

November 2008; Curator: Sifriya Devin


Stitching Pieces of Time, cont.

Our SL exhibit was based on the RL collection of quilts that hangs on the fifth floor of our library.


Harvest Festival As an opening event for our quilt exhibit, we hosted a

harvest festival featuring our first live musical performance by the RL Bluegrass band Hog Operation.


Harvest Festival While performing live for a RL audience on campus,

Hog Operation’s music was fed into our island library parcel, with avatars representing the musicians.


Diversity in KY

In honor of Black History Month, this exhibit highlighted content from the Notable Kentucky African Americans database: http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/nkaa/

February 2008; Curator: Charisse Apfelbaum

http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/nkaa/


Unbridled History: Celebrating the Horse Industry of Kentucky

As Derby season drew near, we decided to feature the history of Kentucky’s horse industry in all of its forms.

May 2009; Curators: Sifriya Devin & Erimentha Hitendra


Unbridled History, cont. To open the exhibit, we held a Derby Eve party

complete with horse racing and mint juleps!


Common Reading Experience

This exhibit included information to support the University of Kentucky’s first Common Reading Experience event.

CRE book: James McBride’s The Color of Water

September 2009; Curators: Erimentha Hitendra & Ginevra Merlin


Common Reading Experience

Also associated with the CRE event, we hosted one of the book discussions in the virtual library on the island.

http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/NewStudentPrograms/CommonReading/

http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/NewStudentPrograms/CommonReading/


Primcutter: An Exhibition by Oriscus Zauberflote

This exhibit featured the builds of our island’s master builder.

In addition to images and models, the exhibit also included information about building in Second Life.

November 2009; Curator: Oriscus Zauberflote


Coming soon! Our next exhibit will feature

the RL and SL work of UK’s TASC- Graphic & Multimedia Production team. This group creates graphics, animations, and digital images for courses and research projects. The team has also been working in Second Life, creating a virtual anatomy lab for use by students in our Medical Center.

Coming March 2010; Curator: Hazzard Messerchmitt


“Real Life” Second Life The Libraries have conducted a number of RL events to

promote and support Second Life on campus. These include a number of drop-in information sessions and a video (machinima) series that ran in our main library.


Rowdy KYians

The group “Rowdy KYians” is made up of Kentucky educators exploring Second Life. The UK Libraries have hosted several meetings and play a leading role in coordinating activities of this group.


Video tours We have created

machinima “tours” of many of the exhibits and events we have hosted. See our island blog:

ukisland.wordpress.com for video links. The videos

provide an opportunity to extend limited-engagement events.


Exhibiting: challenges and rewards

As the SL representation of our library took shape, we were presented with a large build intended to serve as a meeting/presentation space as well as dissemination point for valuable information. It was only natural to utilize this blank canvas by allowing it to serve in the dual role as a rotating exhibit space. The experience has been both challenging and rewarding….as you will see….


Exhibiting: Challenges• Creative Ideas – fresh material that is both

educational as well as visually interesting.• Volunteers – need for numerous willing hands

to keep the exhibit construction from falling to one or two people.

• Time – exhibit planning and construction takes almost as much time as a RL small exhibit.

• Experience – exhibit curators need to be fairly proficient with some advanced SL tasks.


Exhibiting: Rewards• Enhancing the student/visitor experience as

they visit our island or use the space.• SL is visual. The more visually stimulating, the

more rewarding the experience.• Highlighting some of our RL content, such as

Digital Special Collections.• Serving as an opportunity to share extensive

educational content with a new audience.• SL Education: Creating an exhibit is a great way

to learn how to build in Second Life!


For More Information

• Come visit! Our island SLURL is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20KY/179/147/30

• Island blog: http://ukisland.wordpress.com/

• IM Sifriya Devin or email [email protected] • IM Alice Burgess or email [email protected]

http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20KY/179/147/30

http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20KY/179/147/30

http://ukisland.wordpress.com/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]