New Google Group

A new google group is set up just for teens to give input on the teen library (not to be confused with the one that librarians are primarily subscribed to!) teenlibrarysecondlife@googlegroups.com About the group can be found here.

Tshirt design logos

We plan to have flyers available to distribute at the upcoming ALA conference for tshirts. We would like to sell these tshirts to raise money for an island for the teen library.

Teen Metaverse Messenger

Keep your eyes open on the Teen M2 which is picking up again for information on the virtual teen library!

Rotating chair

Last week Eiseldora's rotating chair in the Teen discussion space on the second floor of the Medical Library building won first prize of 250L for entering it in the weekly 'show and tell' contest at the New Citizen's Plaza. It's a lot of fun to be on!

Thanks YPulse!

Librarians rule...again (Robin at Snarkmarket spoke to a group of librarians last week about getting onto MySpace...Ypulse reader and librarian Kelly takes it even further by working on how do build a youth library in Second Life)

Teen SL Library - Meeting Minutes, 5/7/06

Virtual Teen Library Services Meeting
Sunday, May 07, 2006 5:00 PM
Medical Library building, 2nd floor




AGENDA

• Purpose of meeting
• Where we are with SL teen services
• Teen/Adult grid
• Teen SL Campus in fall
• Island for library
• Updates/News
• School Library Journal
• YPulse
• M2-Metaverse Messenger column
• Focus of project-Teen driven
• How we can reach them in the game (M2 and in RL)
• Build partnerships with people/organizations in RL and in SL
• MySpace account
• Educators mailing list
• Private island owner to work with other educators
• People’s interests
• Communication (different google group, forum?, etc.)
• Committees?

MINUTES

In Attendance:
BlueWings Hayek (Kelly), teen librarian
Ray Lightworker (Matt), youth/teens and technology in RL
Klutzy Marx Teen librarian in RL
Cerulean Vesperia (Beth), Library trainer/consultant
Lorelei Junot (Lori), Alliance Library System
Eiseldora Reisman (Jami), LIS student and gamer
Jenna Darrow (Jenna), middle school/high school librarian
Brackish Ludwig (Sebastian) works w/ computers and admin
Rex Riel (Rex), Head Buyer/Technician for a small IT company, library lover, scrounger and info nut
Planetneutral Fackler (Greg), supervisor at a public library
AXEl Foley
Robin Chamberlin, (Robin) YA Librarian & Simmons online CE instructor


Before the meeting officially started, we learned that Eiseldora is training as an instructor through TeaZers, and has added the following classes to next week's schedule: Making a HulaHoop, Virtual Reference, and Basic Decorating. Her rotating chair in the Medical LIbrary won an award at the Wednesday design contest. Congrats Eiseldora!

After a round of introductions, Blue Wings updated us on the progress of the Teen Library on the Teen Grid concept. On Adults are not allowed on the teen grid, and teens are not allowed on the adult grid. For more details, see the message from Pathfinder Linden forwarded from Planetneutral Fackler at http://virtualteenlibrary.blogspot.com/2006/04/explanation-of-sl-teen-grid.html.

We could wait for a Teen Campus (in development) to be completed this fall, or purchase an island outside the teen grid that teens could go to. The benefit is that there would be support for us to be a part of it as a teen services library.

The current procedure is adults must buy an island off the Teen Grid that teens can go to. Islands cost $1200 plus $150 a month for maintenance (20% educator discount). One option would be to share an island with other educators by renting plots, or creating a content creation space for teens. Islands can't be split between the Teen/Adult grids at present.

Initial funding sources could include Libraries Matter / Alliance Library System for the initial purchase. Grant sources, and corporate funding could fund the $150 a month fee. Corporate sponsors to approach might include OCLC and Overdrive, or businesses within SL. Lorelei, Ray, BlueWings and Cerulean offered to work on a grant.

Joining the educators mailing list was mentioned again. The Education Community page suggests emailing pathfinder AT lindenlab DOT com to join the Educator's listserv.

Ray suggested putting together a small group to investigate the island building options; Brackish has some experience. BlueWings Hayek expressed interest, and the issue was tabled.

News and Updates
Rex Riel and Namro installed visitor detectors in the main and medical buildings. Current traffic is around 40/day. Use the command “say list” to view visitors.

A signboard has been added in front of the current building.

A new open classroom has been added next to the SL library, and at the conclusion of the meeting, most of the group went to check out the space. It’s located at Minoa 220, 43 and includes a "Welcome to Second Life" script with notecards from classes and information on how to get started in SL. The space can be reserved through Google calendar or by contacting Rain to schedule.

Publicity
School Library Journal (BlueWings Hayek) -mention appearing in June issue
YALSA blog (Eiseldora Reisman) - Eiseldora has been doing lots of posting!
YPulse (Katt Kongo & Daughter) - interested in doing a story and getting teen perspective
M2 Teen Metaverse Messenger (BlueWings Hayek)

A discussion on how to reach out to teens in RL followed. There is already a mySpace profile set up at http://www.myspace.com/73899784. Other suggestions included setting up an OPAL room and getting Alliance Libraries involved in recruiting teens.

At present, we don’t have figures for how many teens are playing. Brackish said he thought the teen rate of joining SL is very good at this point, and Eiseldora reported that the teens she's talked to don't know about it, so it's not cool yet, or past cool. The teen grid is not as developed as the Adult grid. Episode 7 of Secondcast interviewed a teen player, Mercury Metropolitan, said there are about 10,000 users, not all are active. Download this episode at:
http://www.secondcast.com/podcasts/secondcast-ep07.mp3.

The issue of cost of getting teens involved came up – Lorelei reported that it is possible for institutions to set up educational accounts with logins/passwords. A basic account is free, but not all teens have credit cards. Cell phones with text messaging capabilities are a no-credit card option.

Action Plan

Continue learning about building and scripting (Eiseldora)
Set up a separate Google Group (Ray)
Set up a Teen Forum and take advantage of the polls options
Conduct a meeting for those interested in funding options (BlueWings)
Continue with mySpace profile
Develop programming (Lorelei)
Create in-world orientation workshops for librarians this summer (Klutzy Marx
Jenna Darrow)
Promote the project in RL workshops and trainings (BlueWings, Cerulean)
Create a Teen SL library Flickr group (Eiseldora)
Publish meeting notes to:

• SL blog (Cerulean)
• Teen SL blog (Cerulean)
• YALSA Gaming Dicussion Group (Cerulean)
• YALSA blog (Eiseldora)
• YALSA listserv (BlueWings)
• LM_Net listervs (BlueWings)
• Teen SL Google Group (Ray)

Lorelei gave meeting attendees a Free Culture package, and the meeting concluded with an evaluation to determine if we covered everything we needed to, and a tour of the new open air training center.

Resources
Some resources from Planetneutral Fackler – Teen insights to adult presence on the Teen Grid
http://www.audioblogger.com/media/105581/319102.mp3
http://www.secondcast.com/modules/news/

Informational meeting tonight

Please join Ray Lightworker and I tonight at 5pm (SL time), on the second floor of the Med library building. This will be the first meeting to discuss the virtual teen library and services. Hope to see you all there. If you're not able to come, we'll keep good notes.

School Library Journal

I spoke with School Library Journal today about a short write -up to appear in their June issue about the Teen Second Life project. Thank you to Eiseldora for her posts on the YALSA blog to get the project noticed. Stay tuned!

My Library System

I have interest and support from my library department for this project as 'cutting edge technology' that we can aim to use as another access point for meeting teens where they are at.

Wow.

My supervisor asked what other virtual library services are available (as a reference point). I mentioned OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries), and of course thought of podcasting and IM reference.

I shared that I believe the game itself helps meet teen developmental assets in many of the ways that our current programs are doing-helps to build a positive identity, contributes to the community by sharing skills, and allows teens to learn boundaries as the game is structured in the sense of land ownership and that there are consequences for certain behaviors.

I also suggested that the Teen Second Life project is an extension of what we already do at our library with bringing stories to life: performing plays, filming movies, and using the story jar (creating stories and pictures to be shared over the internet with a searchable index).

Lots of praise to my supervisor and to the SL librarians. This is so much fun!