Last month I registered for a continuing-ed course called "Virtual World Librarianship" offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's library school. Our first meeting was yesterday, and wouldn't you know it - I misread the starting time. I was all ready with my laptop at the library at 1:30, only to find the session was just ending. It had started at 1:30 CENTRAL time. I live in PACIFIC time. Won't make that mistake again! How embarrassing! Thank goodness there is an alternative way to communicate with the instructors and students via the UIUC's Moodle, or distance-ed course management software.
Some of my classmates wonder what the point is - what is there in Second Life that we should spend time and money learning about it. Our instructor says one reason is that academic libraries are looking at it as a potential way to offer distance education. This class I'm taking is an experiment in distance education, for example. I'm looking at it as a way to think "out of the box" about ways to deliver library services remotely - what library services should patrons be able to receive after hours, from their home computer or telephone? What services lend themselves well to self-service? What are some ways to teach patrons how to "use their library at home"? Can these lessons be delivered via distance-ed modules?
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