Library Tech Network

Barbara has been in Second Life (SL) since August 6, 2006 and her library has had a presence in SL since late September / early October 2006. They were the first academic library in SL. Barbara has a task force that operates the libraries in SL, and this year she received an Innovative Teaching grant from the University to develop a campus in SL. Barbara chairs the Alliance Library System's SL Advisory Committee and has been active in Info Island, Info International, the SL Literary Festival, and many other activities. She has taught classes at Bradley on how to use SL and is part of the team that teaches the virtual librarianship course for UIUC. She was the keynote closing speaker at University of Illinois Springfield Technology Days which included a demo of SL, helped demo SL at the Sirsi/Dynix booth at ALA Midwinter 07, was part of the SL panel at Internet Librarian International where she was the one who did the live demo, was one of the presenters at the SL workshop at Internet Librarian in Monterey, and co-presented with Lori Bell on several occasions. She has been asked to do a workshop on SL for the Digital Café 2008 at the university in Tilburg, Netherlands in August.

She will speak on the impact Second Life is having in libraries and share innovative ideas in using Second Life. Whether you have never heard of Second Life, or already have your avatar online, this will be a learning experience for all. Barbara will also be presenting two sessions on Second Life during the day.