Info Island this week

RL Librarians in SL

The American Library Association, Washington Office is pleased to announce the release of the District Dispatch Podcast #7: Special Midwinter Edition. ALA Washington Office is also now represented on Cybrary City.

Puglet Dancer (AKA Barbara Galik), Kitty Phillip (AKA Kitty Pope), Loreli Junot (AKA Lori Bell) of Alliance Libary System join Galen Noltenius (AKA Mark Bard) of the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy for an informal discussion activities of the librarians of Second Life. Contact Galen Noltenius for more information

SLNN Features Commonwealth Island http://slnn.com/article/commonwealthisland/ Commonwealth Island is run by Hayduke Ebisu for non profits.

Tales of Love, Co-sponsored by the Caledon Branch Library

On February 16th, the Caledon branch and the Clan of Seafarers & Storytellers will co-host a story-telling session at Falling Anvil Public House, in Caledon Tamrannoch (233,113, 23). We will begin telling stories at 6:30 pm SLT, and go until we are all storied out.

The theme of this session is Tales of Love — both love gone right and love gone horribly, horribly wrong. The stories will be collected for inclusion in the Caledon branch’s Local Lore collection. Story-tellers, fabulists, and long-winded liars are welcome to participate, and stories should be a maximum of 10 minutes in length. Those wishing to secure themselves a prime spot on the programme are encouraged to contact JJ Drinkwater.

NIH Presence at HealthInfo Island

Enter HealthInfo Island’s Medical Library - and all looks normal (if ‘normal’ is a statement we can comfortably make with floating books, improbable, abstract architecture, and a talking sculpture!) It’s only when you get to the second floor that you note a new element: the National Institutes of Health have taken over the floor with a beautiful display of posters and other information. Welcome additions to the resources at the library include a videocast about the NIH, an NIH news feed (RSS), and a meeting room for presentations.

Why here? Why at Second Life? – and why here, at HealthInfo Island, surrounded by libraries, in an environment intended as a gathering space for SL’s residents and support groups? “HealthInfo Island is already promoting public health in-world, and that is what is what we want to accomplish with NIH in SL,” says PJ Slapstick. “We’ve heard of large corporations joining Second Life for collaboration and marketing purposes. We began looking into ways SL could be used at the National Institutes of Health.”

In real life, Paul Santoro Jr. is an Advanced Technology Engineer and employee of SRA International, a Fortune 500 ‘Best Company to work for’ for 2007 which is contracted with NIH, as well as numerous other government entities (for an impressive list, see their website at http://www.sra.com/federal/). In their daily lives in either environment, PJ and his colleague, PJ Sinatra, are part of an Advanced Technology Group intended to research and explore emerging technologies that can be used at NIH.

“I think Second Life is a great place for collaboration,” says PJ. “Places like the CDC, HealthInfo Island, and eventually NIH will team up to produce an accurate source of health information.” An RSS feed at the medical library is perfect, he feels, to “display the research that is being done at the National Institutes of Health and the projects we have funded.”

Finally, PJ considers that “the ability to access medical information from an actual person (avatar) while keeping a sense of confidentiality will be a key element to the success of NIH in SL.”

We are of one accord. As medical and consumer health librarians, our entire mission at SL is based upon providing a human face in an alien territory – healthcare and health information. HealthInfo Island is very pleased to welcome PJ and JP of SRA International, and to include NIH resources among its resources.

Health Focus of the Week

Since we’re talking about the NIH, why not take a moment to explore their website. Don’t overlook special focus resources, such as the series of links on back pain, or (my own new discovery of the day) a tremendous assortment of resources for herbal medicine. NIH is the ‘parent’ for so much of the information we use as medical librarians that you can be sure even if you don’t use the site – we do, in helping you learn more about your health.

As a reminder (or if you don’t know!) – we’re here to help YOU with health information questions. Contact Namro Orman or Carolina Keats – or just come explore HealthInfo Island.

Black History Month

There will be a variety of exhibits and programs in celebration of black history month. We will share these in next week’s column.

Marie Antoinette exhibit rescheduled

Marie Antoinette: The Teen: Queen Marie Antoinette, Queen of France in the 18th century, who was beheaded before the French Revolution, will visit Second life Library and the “Throne Room” on Info Island II at 6 pm sl on Friday February 2 and Saturday February 3. Marie will tell her story and introduce you to the people in her life during 18th century France. A young woman born at the wrong place at the wrong time, she will share her story from her point of view in an eighteenth century French environment with life size pictures of the people in her life. Contact Lorelei Junot for more information