Info Islands this week
Happy New Year to everyone!
Branch opening, Exhibit, and Carnival Masquerade
Jabuary 5th, 2008
12-6pm SLT
HG Wells Memorial Branch Library,
Caledon Wellsian
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Wellsian/233/238/23
The Caledon Library announces two gala events to mark the opening of its newest branch,
the H. G. Wells. Memorial Library in Caledon Wellsian. A masked street party on January
5 will celebrate the opening of the Library and its inaugural exhibit on the New Orleans
Carnival.
Voyages to Imagination: A Carnival Masquerade
The roadway along the northern shore of Caledon Wellsian will be host to a festival of masking, mumming, music,and dance from 12 noon to 6 pm SLT on January 5th, 2008, a date traditionally observed as the festival of Twelfth Night.
Marking the end of the Christmas season and the start of the Carnival season, Twelfth
Night, the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany in the Christian liturgical calendar, has
traditionally been a time of merriment and mischief-making befitting the brief and topsy-
turvy reign of the Lord of Misrule. The Library is pleased to invite all of Caledon’s citizens
and friends to our Twelfth Night festivities; a most hearty invitation is extended to those for
whom Caledon is yet unknown, that they might discover the pleasures of this fabled land.
Masking is most courteously and heartily encouraged for this event Appropriately festive
music will be supplied by the able music conjurers of Radio Riel, and an assortment of
seasonal refreshments will be offered. Opportunities will be offered for public dancing, as
well as more private forms of entertainment, equally traditional in this season of misrule and
upending, as the spirits move.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Butterfly of Winter”: Visitors to the New Orleans Carnival.
An exhibit at the H.G. Wells Memorial Branch Library, Caledon Wellsian
Twelfth Night Through Easter Sunday, Two Thousand and Eight.
” Carnival is a butterfly of winter whose last real flight of Mardi Gras forever ends his
glory..” (PerryYoung, The Mystick Krewe)
In the years following the American Civil War, moods of reconciliation and discovery swept
the country. Writers of “local color” fiction and travel narratives filled the periodical press
with stories of exotic climes and distinctive cultural practices that deepened and complicated
the fragile spirit of national unity.
No city in the United States was more exotic and distinctive than New Orleans and no
moment better demonstrated her distinctiveness than the Carnival season, nestled in the
Christian liturgical calendar between the Chrismas feast culiminating in Twelfth Night and
the onset of Lent as Ash Wednesday dawned. The climax of Carnival was Mardi Gras (Fat
Tuesday) celebrated across the Gulf Coast, but with particular fervor and intention in the
Crescent City.
To celebrate the opening of the newest branch of The Caledon Library, an exhibit will be
mounted in the H. G. Wells Memorial Library in Caledon Wellsian, beginning on January
5. This exhibit, curated by Mr. Rudolfo Woodget, will highlight the distinctive features of
the New Orleans Carnival in the nineteenth century, as reported by visitors to the city.
Illustrative material from periodicals of the era will be augmented by a collection of texts
from visitors, and opened up to the understanding of visitors by Mr. WoodgetÕs own
knowledge of the Carnival in later years.
Visitors to the exhibit may anticipate learning sundry colorful facts about the origins of the
New Orleans Carnival, its masquerade balls and secret societies, including accounts of
masked revelers on Mardi Gras, of scandalous intrigues, and of the rumored infatuation of a
Russian Grand Duke and an American show-girl.
The H.G. Wells Memorial Branch of the Caledon Library will house a collection of
materials with the theme of travel, adventure, and exploration, whether across the geography
of the spinning globe, or that of the unbounded lands of the imagination.. Readers are
invited to come investigate the 19th century’s notions of the Art of Going, in accounts of
journeys both real and imaginary.
The building housing the Wells Memorial Library has been designed ( http://inperpetua.blogspot.com/ ) for The Caledon
Library by Miss Serra Anansi, noted architect and designer, and founder of Winterfell, a
darkly mythic region with special ties to the Independent State of Caledon. Miss Anansi’s
remarkable building celebrates the expansive curiosity of Mr. Wells’ most imaginative
voyages of imagination and offers a warm and comfortable space for telling and re-telling
stories at voyage’s end.
The World Turned Upside Down: Tales of Reversal
Story Session at the Falling Anvil Pub
Caledon Tamrannoch
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Tamrannoch/233/113/23/
Monday, January the 7th
5-8 pm SLT
Up is Down
Black is White
Kings are Beggars
Day is Night
Many cultures around the world celebrate Festivals of Reversal, such as Twelfth Night or the Roman Saturnalia, where social status and roles are reversed: child popes are elected, kings go barefoot, men and women rifle each other’s closets and satirize each other’s ways, and the Lord of Misrule is sovereign over all.
The Clan of Seafarers and Storytellers, the Storytelling Guild of SL, and the Caledon Library invite you to a story session at the Falling Anvil Public House, in Caledon Tamrannoch. The theme of this month’s session is reversals of all kinds. Anyone with a story to share of the topsy-turvy, backwards, upside down, and just plain contrary is invited to join in the telling. We’ll welcome your stories of wild tomfoolery, the revelation of switching roles, the upsets of fortune, and of lessons learned when the shoe is suddenly found to be on the other foot.
And, as always, all lovers of tales are welcome to come listen and chime in with their gasps of amazement, tears, laughter, and thunderous applause.
Science Fiction/Fantasy Portal
The Sci-Fi & Fantasy Portal (Library) January Book of the Month Discussion will be on The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman.
Discussions are during the 3rd. week of each month, so that’s Wednesday–Jan. 16th. at 6:30 pm–and the following Saturday–Jan. 19th. at 12 noon.
We meet at the discussion circle (with the cushions) under the Portal or at the larger stage and bleecher seating nearby.
Come one. Come all. Share your ideas, insights, and questions. For more information, contact Franja Russell.
There are several great book discussions coming up soon, so grab these books and start reading!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:00 PM SLT – Book Discussion of the detective novel Moth by James Sallis at Mystery Manor on Info Island.
Thursday, February 7, 2008 6:00 PM SLT – Beowulf vs. Grendel – Book Discussion on Info Island International.
Tuesday night, March 4th at 6 p.m. SLT – “How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now” by James L. Kugel at the Peace Park Religious Resource Area.
Poets’ Corner Exhibit Opening and Poetry Reading – January 5th 10 AM SLT
Byron, Burns, Longfellow, Tennyson, Chaucer, Blake and many other poets and authors either buried or commemorated at the Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. Please come view the exhibit and share your favorite poem. Second Life Library/Info Island, Info Island (206, 9, 123)
University of Illinois Virtual World Continuing Education courses
The Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Alliance Library System are pleased to offer a series of non-credit continuing education courses for librarians, educators, and others interested in libraries, learning, and teaching in virtual worlds such as Second Life.
Spring 2008 Courses
NEW Second Life 101
Instructor: Barbara (Puglet Dancer) Galik
Introduction to Virtual World Librarianship
Instructors: S. (Hypatia Dejavu) Thompson, Rhonda (Abbey Zenith) Trueman, Lori (Lorelei Junot) Bell and JJ (JJ Drinkwater) Jacobson.
NEW Survey of Librarianship in Virtual Worlds
Instructors: Tom (Maxito Ricardo) Peters, Lori (Lorelei Junot) Bell and Kelly (BlueWings Hayek) Czarnecki.
NEW Technical Skills for the Virtual World Librarian
Instructors: Shannah (Anji Juran) Miller and Bernadette (HVX Siverstar) Swanson.
Intermediate Virtual World Librarianship – Programming and Planning
Instructors: Tom (Maxito Ricardo) Peters, Rhonda (Abbey Zenith) Trueman, Christy (Violet Portola) Confetti Higgins, and JJ (JJ Drinkwater) Jacobson.
Libraries and Immersive Learning in 3D Virtual Environments
Instructors: S. (Hypatia Dejavu) Thompson, JJ (JJ Drinkwater) Jacobson.
NEW Working with a Class in Second Life
Instructor: Dr. Bryan (Bryan Mnemonic) Carter.
NEW Setting Up an Educational Presence in Second Life
Instructors: Lori (Lorelei Junot) Bell, Rhonda (Abbey Zenith) Trueman, Tom (Maxito Ricardo) Peters
Please visit http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/VW/ for additional information and to register. If you have questions, contact Marianne Steadley, steadley@uiuc.edu217-244-2751.