I'M WEAK!!! But it's ok....

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Category: Life

My moratorium on Second Life is not working out quite as I had planned. Here's a little background info on my entree into SL. In my work as a librarian, I've read a lot of articles in professional journals about reaching young adult patrons through new technology. One thing I kept seeing as a possible venue was Second Life. In March of this year I decided to create an SL acct. and scope out the potential for my library's involvement.

Well, my intentions were pure, but I was soon drawn to the dark side. Ok, I'm exaggerating. It wasn't that dark. In fact, it was a hell of a lot of fun. But I spent a lot more time exploring the more fun areas of SL rather than the professional resources I had gone there for in the first place. And then, what with my addictive personality and all, I became totally obsessed with spending time in SL. I made SL friends, bought SL clothing, rented an SL house (and furnished it very nicely, I must say), and generally spent way too much time playing a virtual version of "Barbie Dream House."

So, after an impromptu intervention (my husband busted me), I decided to quit SL cold turkey. And I did well for almost a week! But it's hard to stay away. Then I had a brainstorm: Why don't I create a new Librarian avatar and keep my SL experience purely professional? I can do that. So I did. And it's going ok so far.

I went on to SL yesterday with my new avatar "Vikki Planer," and headed to Info Island, the Second Life Library location. I met a librarian (Shadow) whom I was familiar with via an SL Librarian social network group on Ning. Anyway, it was fun interacting with library professionals, and keeping my nose clean at the same time! There were patrons asking questions, other librarians to chat with, and just an all around exciting vibe. But as with a RL library, you get the crazy patrons too: when I showed up at Info Island the librarians were dealing with a guy asking about the tightness of a woman's vagina…. I IM'd Shadow and remarked that you can't escape patrons like this, even in a virtual world. Just the fact that the guy would seek out the library to ask a question like that….it's mind boggling. Shadow said she'd been dealing with griefers all day. She also told me that there's an SL librarian offering a class in "Griefers 101," so I'm going to look that up in preparation for my stint as an SL librarian. I don't know when I'll start volunteering there, but I'm putting my plan in motion. In any case, if you're active in SL come to Info Island and talk to some pretty cool librarians.

Currently listening : Favourite Worst Nightmare By Arctic Monkeys Release date: By 24 April, 2007