Met an academic for the first time today. I think she's been here for a while but is new to the faculty as she's doing one of those crossover subjects that as much design as engineering.

She's keen on getting me doing something with mindmaps which was a fun session I developed at TheOldPlace with S.

Be nice to revisit them.

Though the visit did throw up some issues with what my laptop has - or rather doesn't have - access to while I'm out and about. So another email fired off to the IT help desk.

Met up with H for coffee again today. About the third time we've managed that in a year I think. Still, it was good to find out that some of the issues she's facing on her second floor are much the same as down here on the ground floor. It's surprising sometimes, how little contact there can be between the floor teams sometimes.

And as from the 1st we become team leaders for our respective floors. The Faculty Librarians do two year stints which are just finishing now. Snag is the senior colleague I'm taking over from is so laid back and 'handsoff' in his approach that it's rather hard to know what to emulate.

And the structure/location of the team is changing anyway with our floor manager taking over the systems post.

I'm not even sure I know who the team consists of. Senior colleague just mentioned and our new(ish) assistant. The floor manger and his assistant. That's the 'core' and easy enough. But there's also three ladies from the issue team who come and help with shelving (and our current big summer move). I'm not even sure who two of them are. Plus assorted student shelvers. I think.

Not to mention all my uncertainties/fears/noviceness at 'leadership' in any case.

So, all in all, it could be fun.

Back in my virtual course in Second Life today. Similar to last week with us sitting around in an (open air) auditorium, still going through the basics of the place. This time with the added twist that we had two presenters because one was actually teaching the same thing in real space in front of real people as well (who could see us) and the other typing in what she was saying. I'd love to have known how edited it was and how much we missed!

Meanwhile, a further difference was the lead teacher being possible the most attractive (for want of a better word for a set of pixels) avatar I've seen in SL. With a necklace that was specially designed, created from hundreds of prims and looked fabulous. Of course, fantasy took a bit of a knock when she revealed in the session that she'd been a librarian for 30 years.

Once again there was chat via 'notes at the back of the class' (or IM as most people know it). This time with another former colleague who's also joined the class and also the course organizer - who at least recognized me this week after last week's decline of friendship. It must be the Harley jacket wearing, aging 60s rocker look I've worked hard at developing!

As ever I'm being chucked out of the building as the class ends, but this time I managed to grab my laptop and sit on the back doorstep which is still within the network bubble and log back in for the last few minutes. A (real life) discussion earlier in the day (in as much as email is real life) had reminded me about the selection of motorbikes in my inventory, so when class did finish I couldn't resist jumping on and roaring off into the sunset. Which would probably have looked more impressive had the bike actually roared (it doesn't) and had I known how to control it accurately!

Rare empty day in my diary and been marvellous to catch up (hah! who am I kidding), ok, it's been marvellous to make a slight dent in stuff that piled up while I was off. Short lunch and coffee breaks have helped. My desk may be no clearer, but the stress alarms over what I might be missing have been helped.

One assignment for yesterday was to try and find six people to fill in an assessment about how they perceive me. Tricky when I've not even been here a year. But I've asked some from TheOldPlace to have a go. (Thanks if you're reading this!)

It's for a development day next week. It's all going to be analyzed and I'll probably be found out for the disaster/psychotic/uselessness I currently feel. But 'observers' will be glad to know I don't get to see what they've written about me. (Drat!)

Went to an interesting presentation today from a couple of excellent salesmen. Telling us about and demonstrating Primo
http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/primo.htm

The idea behind this product (and other similar but not as good that I've seen), is to provide a one stop search. Instead of students (and academics) having to search the library catalogue, search various databases (possibly several), search the university's repositories, search this, search that - never mind the web and Google Scholar etc.

There are certain difficulties with such an approach (speed is often one as proprietary databases can't be pre-searched as Google does with the web), but Primo seems to address many of the other issues that are often raised (too many results on general searches, too limited search features).

It also has a lot of the social side of Web 2.0 stuff - tagging, rating, reviewing items. This could be particular useful as it's likely to be far too long before library management systems catch up with this.

Particularly new students want the social side and don't want the complexity of what they now face. They're used to Google and Flickr and the like. They're not used to (and don't seem to warm to) having to face an hour's training on where-to-begin-to-get-the-information-you-need-oh-and-by-the-way-this-isn't-half-of-it-but-we-don't-have-time-for-more.

We fear that the product is going to be horribly expensive (the salesmen have gone off now to work out a cost based on our particular details), but I'm increasingly of the opinion that we can't afford NOT to be buying into something like this or we're going to become increasingly irrelevant to and unused by students.

They're not interested in search like librarians. They're interested in find.

I've, for reasons I'm not entirely sure about, signed up for a virtual course run by a major mid-western university. It's a course on Second Life in Second Life. For Librarians. Not entirely sure what it's going to be like - and the one time I did a virtual thing like this before I hated the lack of f2f interaction - but want to give it a go and the library's forked out the $200.

The first of the two hour sessions was this afternoon and was kind of disappointing and interesting at the same time.

Disappointing because it turned out to be very much like a lecture with us sitting in an open air auditorium listening to the speaker for the day. Disappointing because the first hour really did cover the very basic basics of Second Life, the second hour some of the relevance to libraries - but felt as if it were just getting interesting as it was time to go. Disappointing because we learned that building things for example, was not part of this course but an intermediate one (still, I could sign up for that I guess).

Interesting because it was curious attending class in this kind of environment. Interesting to see how others (maybe 25 class mates?) behaved and reacted. Interesting because I was attending with a former colleague from TheOldPlace and we could IM each other through the class - just like passing real notes but not as obtrusive - which provided a virtual commentary on the virtual class that proved highly amusing and was really the saving grace of the whole two hours. (Everything from rude remarks about the session/session leader or people's avatars, through how we were supposed to be responding or not to the session, to completely non-course related chit-chat).

On the downside I didn't manage to avoid my real life problem of just being that bit too eager to chip in with something or make a smart remark before I can help it. (e.g. feeling like I was the class nerd after we had a break one hour in and I used it to go fetch from our real life shelves a book that had been recommended)

On the upside I did learn a couple of useful things: about mouselook, about silencing objects, and about the recommended book. And, just maybe, by interacting when it didn't seem like many bothered, made the class tutor feel better about the session.

Not a long post today as so much seems to have piled up while I was away last week (or occupied with tours or virtual classes).

But, completely offtopic, I have finished Harry Potter already. Tremendous story and a fitting conclusion to the series - even if it didn't answer every loose end. Sad to think there's no more.

And a chance to formally thank someone at TheOldPlace who persuaded me to persevere with Potter (I nearly gave up early on because of depressing reminders of my own school days) and who introduced me to the marvellous John Granger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Granger

Back to work after a few days off using up annual leave, but to be honest if it hadn't been for the one event in my diary I might have stayed home. I'm feeling so under the weather with a cold and have broken my toe to boot (swimming would you believe it?!).

But the diary event couldn't be changed and has filled the day. The other half of the visitors from TheOldPlace were due for a repeat of a month back. Although one had to leave early so she came a couple of hours early. It really did fill the day and give me a sense of deja vu as I lapped the library for the second time.

Still, the visit itself seemed to go as well as last time - despite the Head of the library not being around to do his little introduction. The schedule was pretty much the same (refreshments, tour, tour of the website, lunch in a nearby cafe, campus tour) and again charged me up pretty well. But now, having said farewell, I'm utterly exhausted and wondering if I have the strength to travel home.

Bit nervous about posting this for reasons for which may become clear, but as I'm aware I'm going to be off for a few days, it'll be something to mull over. I think I've decided it shouldn't matter posting it. Or that I don't really care! Take your pick.



I often read reviews or comments in the real world media that suggest Second Life is "just" a red light district or that you'll only find perverts in there, or that none of it is "safe" for children (or adults for that matter). In a workshop a few Fridays back, I pointed out to those in the room that although I've not spent a lot of time in Second Life, that that had not been my experience. Perhaps I'm more wary of clicking on things that 'look' dodgy or have merely led a sheltered life in there. But it was pointed out to me by a former colleague afterwards, when I mentioned the discussion, that actually the same was true of the real world as well. I don't frequent, hang out in, or even encounter very often such 'dodginess'. OK, so I was once was propositioned by a prostitute in Malaysia in the middle of the night but given that she appeared to be about 90 it wasn't exactly tempting. Besides I took my nightwatch duties guarding 350 people too seriously to abandon them even for a moment.

Reflecting on the observation, however, I thought it was probably true and I wasn't so much 'stung' by that, as decided in an oh so rebellious moment that I would rectify it immediately. What if I tried to find something less than wholesome?

I clicked on the Second Life map determined to see what I could find and scrolled around until I saw 'Exotica Erotica'. Now that sounds like it's not going to be a teddy bear's picnic exactly. Here goes...

I teleported in and found what amounted to a pole dancing club. Immediately one of the three female avatars said 'hi' and at the same moment my PC display went all blocky and the machine crashed. First time that's ever happened to me in Second Life. Much amused by either divine protection from such a place, a really nifty university IT security protection system against visiting such a place, or else just random chance, I eventually logged in again.

I realized I'd teleported onto the dance stage and there were clear messages around and about saying that the dance stage was only for performers. I backed off as quick as I could and was, now I was moving again, welcomed once again with a 'hi hapter' from the same dancer as before. I apologized for my crass entry (though quite how you avoid it I don't know) and was told that it wasn't a problem and got an apology myself once the dancer realized they'd missed the first letter of my avatar's name.

Down on the floor proper I saw that I could sit on one of the many stools round the dance area at the feet of the dancers (some marked 'chill', some marked 'entertain me'), I could wander around various 'cells' round the perimeter of the room, or I could look at some of the wall displays which were like large computer screens each of which without exception seemed to have some fairly grainy but graphic pornographic image which changed periodically. Here and there were various pink and blue balls usually labelled with a sexual position and it didn't take much observation or thought to realize that they mostly came in pairs and seemed to relate to whether you wanted to be (or were) male or female.

Dotted around were a handful of avatars - all male except one I noticed. (not counting the three dancers). Two were naked - one very obviously so as he'd clearly paid for and was proud of an anatomical enhancement. (For those who aren't familiar with this aspect of Second Life it might help to know that a standard avatar can be stripped naked like a Cindy Doll or Action Man but is just as sexless underneath the clothing). None of the avatars on the floor were actually doing anything or saying anything except wandering around with a very occasional interchange with the dancers on stage from one of the avatars who seemed to be known to them.

The cells enhanced the feel of a, well, dungeon would perhaps best describe it. There were no windows or skylights. Some cells were equipped with chains and manacles and rack-like devices and some of the pink/blue balls were labelled 'tie me'. There didn't appear to be any obvious entrance/exit. I teleported in, I eventually teleported out.

Meanwhile the three dancers were pole dancing in a fairly reasonable simulation of what I would expect had I ever been to such a venue in real life, the one who welcomed me was dressed in a bikini type outfit, another was dressed a bit more flamboyantly, and the other appeared to be naked but covered in zebra stripes I guess. Clearly they'd all paid for enhancements to movement, body shape, hair, clothing etc to make them more attractive than run of the mill 'free' avatars out-of-the-box as it were.

Now, so much for the description of the place. I'm a reasonably red blooded male, I think, and I tend to respond well to visual input but I have to say that the place did nothing for me whatsoever. After walking around for a bit I sat on a stool - one of the ones marked 'chill' - I wasn't entirely certain the other stools mightn't involve paying Linden dollars - I've only got 24 of the things (about 10 cents). I'm quite able to find avatars 'attractive' in the sense that the pixels are clearly representing attractiveness or cuteness or whatever rather than actually being intrinsically attractive. I'm quite able to use my imagination to bridge the gap between Second Life and reality. I'm quite able to get lost in the virtual world (in all three senses of the expression!). But I really really couldn't see the point. And I don't think it was just because you've no idea if the avatars you interacting with are actually male or female in real life. And I don't think it was because the chains and dungeon like edges were unappealing. Much of Second Life is much more surreal than that. I suppose that had I been there with a friend and chatting and using the pink/blue animations balls it might have been different. I suppose that had I attempted to chat someone up and use the animation balls it might have been different. I suppose that had I just been there chatting suggestively with someone it might have been different. But I don't think so. It comes back to what I say about watching sport on tv. I'd rather be out there playing than just watching. And just watching in Second Life seems even more removed from reality.

Overall it seemed a peculiarly dispiriting and depressing sort of place. But then again, I suspect that I'd find a real life club of that sort exactly the same. Frankly, porn has never done a great deal for me. I don't think it's because I'm not wired that way, I think it's because I've very deliberately not dwelt on it/pursued it/used it.

I gave it quarter of an hour or so (if that) which seemed a fair experiment and then randomly checked out a nearby island just to leave a better image in my mind over the weekend. I stumbled across a beautiful island with a bandstand just behind a beach. There were two balls in the bandstand, one pink and one blue. Perhaps they're right I thought, and it is mostly like "that". But this turned out to be somewhere you could tango with a partner. Now that I would like to try! Two left feet in real life. Down on the beach was a lovely camp fire surrounded by logs, the waves were washing up and down, two boats were moored off a jetty, and there was the occasional cry of a gull. Now that's more like it! I waded in the water for a moment - though as ever this kind of thing just isn't the same as doing it in real life - and sat by the fire. Artificial though the view and the waves and the sounds were, it was very relaxing. I decided to leave myself there for the weekend and log out. I hope the owners of the island didn't mind - but I'll collect some firewood for them if they like.


Of course, all this was in work time and although I've been expected to explore the place and find out what use we can make of it to help students, I did wonder if I could possibly justify visiting a pole dancing club/dungeon. But in fact, I learned something about Second Life and its denizens, etiquette and environment. And I learned quite a powerful lesson that has immediate relevance to any provision of library space that we might offer. I wonder if you spotted it? The power of that immediate and friendly welcome. I'm sure the dancers are being paid, I'm sure that's exactly what they're supposed to do. I have no idea if they're supposed to 'do' anything more and I could have, I'm sure, pursued conversation with them. But all the same, even just that welcome into a strange space was very, well, welcome.

Preview day today. Means spending 90 minutes staffing a table over in the student night club temporarily turned into an 'Information Fair' at which the library has a presence.

Once again I find myself being paid to hand out sweets to teenagers. Ah well.

It's fun enthusing about the library though to prospective students and parents who think they've heard it all before but haven't hear *our* particular slant on things!

Made all the more interesting by a bomb scare down the road forcing the library to evacuate for a while over lunch.

Interesting tour today. Showing a group of architect's round the library. 80 of them came to visit and I got about a 1/5 of them. Bit daunted by the possibility that they'd ask lots of detailed architectural questions but I briefed myself on all the stuff I knew and that covered pretty much everything they seemed to want to know (except for the one obsessed by fire partitioning).

But it's probably the first tour that I've given where I've had to chivvy people along as they were in danger of stroking concrete or admiring ducting all afternoon. As it was we had to cut things short because they were well past their time to depart for other things. 65 minutes all told and it could easily have been another 25.

Still, it was nice to show people around who were interested. OK, so it wasn't in the library per se, more the building. But compared to the average group of barely engaged students it was quite refreshing.

New furniture arriving all week arrived in our 'space' today. None for me as it doesn't fit into the tiny office, but the desks outside the office are now all new and (much) larger. And match the stuff in the new extension.

So given that I haven't had to clear my own desk, the only real excitement of the day has been finishing the cryptic crossword by lunchtime and in a fit of organization (for me at least) buying theater tickets for next week.

If the last post or two have hinted at just the tiniest bit of depression, they're probably not too far wrong.

I mean I've just spent half an hour trying to make sense of an email from my office colleague, Q, forwarding something he'd received that included links to various library OPACs around the country. Said catalogs were examples that had tutorials to show students how to use the OPAC and might give us ideas of how to do something similar. The trouble was the links seemed to be broken more often than not and the commentary in the email seemed to be inaccurate, until eventually I looked at the date of the email. 2002. Turns out Q had had several emails regurgitate from several years back (for no very good reason that he's yet established), but forwarded that particular one on to me without realizing it was one of this set.

So in an attempt to be a bit more cheerful, this came my way this morning:

Last orders
Last week we thought we had resolved the question of whether the glass is half full or half empty when an ana­lyst programmer revealed that the glass is twice the size it needs to be.
Many of you take exception to this.
Bill Ridgeway at Comput­er Solutions is typical of our mailbag this week: ‘It is obvious an equally true answer is that the amount of drink is half as much as it could be’, he points out.
Computing, 5th July 2007, p40
http://backbytes.computing.co.uk/2007/07/last-orders.html

Two days off and I'd hoped to be feeling a bit more like facing work.

Unfortunately just the opposite is the case... not helped by managing to lose my PDA with credit cards (fortunately handed in to a nearby museum by two tourists and the woman and the museum cancelled the VISA card), and then in fetching that by returning to work on a Saturday which was tedious enough, managing (it seems) to rather seriously mislay my annual season ticket.

I knew there'd be a fee but I didn't know it would *10%* of the price of the ticket. Best part of $100 down the drain (or wherever the thing went).

I should be put down. It would be quite the easiest way.