Librarian Conference in Second Life

A break from reality--yesterday several of the reference librarians at my library participated in a virtual conference in Second Life. We had to develop avatars and go through an orientation to learn how to move and interact within the virtual world environment. This was a regular conference--$95 participation fee and there must have been at least fifty librarians there.
We were scheduled just like a regular conference.
Following the opening remarks we broke into groups and went to different locations for book discussions. My group discussed "The Grapes of Wrath". There were fifteen to twenty in the group, sitting in a room surrounded by displays about the depression and John Steinbeck.

Then we went on assigned field trips to sites that are devoted to literature and historical sites relevant to literature.

This is the keynote address--the author of several books about Second Life. She talked about how to build things, how to make money (real money, not juse Second Life Linden Dollars), and the future of Second Life and virtual reality. This was followed by a panel discussion in which six people talked about how to apply Second Life to educational purposes.

The Second Life conference was a very interesting experience. I can see many ways we could use it to enhance our patrons' use of the library, but it is going to take lots of time to learn if we are to create our own content. For now there are plenty of sites already constructed that could be useful.