UK Island Grand Opening

I'm so pleased at the crowds we drew--both real life and in world--for the UK Island Second Life grand opening on Thursday. I'll post more about the event later but here are a few photos:

Eloise Pasteur's presentation

ArthurConan Doyle's presentation

UK Second Life Grand Opening on Thursday

Just a reminder that the in world/real world grand opening of the University of Kentucky island is on Thursday, March 20.

• Full schedule of events
• Images of UK island on flickr
• If you don't want to log into Second Life or join us in the real world Young Library, you can watch the events via streaming video.

Hope to "see" you tomorrow!

(Image of Young Library from Alice Burgess)

Facebook Chat is Coming

I know it's becoming passé to report on Facebook-related news, but I had to share this. Of all places, I just heard the news from my favorite gossip blog, Gawker:

Facebook is launching FBChat in two weeks.

Sure I have too many chat IDs to keep track of now (OCS plus Gmail and AIM--at least I can run AIM thru Gmail now). And then there are all those chat accounts I rarely use. Thank goodness for tabbed browsing, huh. Anyway, Facebook chat will be just another convenient way to stay in touch with your peeps.

Creative Programming in the Academic Library

The March 2008 issue of C&RL News includes an interesting article about developing creative programming ideas in the academic library. Here are five ideas from the article:

1. Host a fair.
2. Plan a mystery event.
3. Create a stress-free zone.
4. Have a blind date with a book.
5. Invite children to the library.

When we think programming, many of us tend to think of public rather than academic libraries. But why not offer some fun, creative events in the academic library that will help engage students?

Point to Multiple Profiles with ProfileFly

One of the obvious issues with social networking software is the lack of connection among different services. I have a Facebook account, a MySpace account, and even more contacts in LinkedIn. I have some flickr images, some YouTube videos, then there are those bookmarks or blogrolls I might want to share. Not to mention all the blogs where I contribute or websites I manage.

Until there is a way to connect all of this social data, at least there are some services designed for creating a single profile with pointers to your various social presences. I have started looking at these and just signed up for ProfileFly yesterday. I haven't added very many links yet, but there are a number of options. Check it out--it's an interesting idea.

UK Island Grand Opening in Second Life

I'm delighted to announce the Grand Opening of the University of Kentucky Second Life island on Thursday, March 20. The grand opening will include a series of real world and in world events--check the website for more details. Pictured above is one of our many planning meetings for the event. Aside from some landscaping, I haven't contributed much to this event, but others are working hard to make this a fun and educational afternoon. Hope to see you at Young Library or in world!

Watch the video invitation to the event:



(video credit: Kirk Laird, TASC AV)

More Kudos to Colleagues

It's been a busy day for announcements of awards and honors. The candidates for SLA Board of Directors have just been announced. I'm so pleased to report that not one, but two current IT Division Board members are running for SLA Board of Directors:

Holly Chong-Williams, a past chair and 2008 IT Program Planner, is running for Division Cabinet Chair-Elect.

Michael Kim, IT Secretary, is running for one of the Director positions.

The complete list of candidates:

For President-elect:

• Janice C. Anderson, Access Sciences Corporation, Houston, Texas
• Anne Caputo, Dow Jones & Company, Washington, D.C.

For Chapter Cabinet Chair-elect:

• Cynthia Barrancotto, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, Houston, Texas
• Ruth Wolfish, IEEE, Piscataway, New Jersey

For Division Cabinet Chair-elect:

• Holly Chong-Williams, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia
• Ann Sweeney, European Union - European Commission Delegation, Washington, D.C.

For Director (Two to be elected):

• Jessica Baumgart, Renesys, Manchester, New Hampshire
• Michael Kim, University of Miami Library, Coral Gables, Florida
• Daniel Lee, Navigator Ltd, Toronto, Ontario
• Nettie Seaberry, National Minority Supplier Development Council, New York City

Congratulations to all the candidates!

They're Going to Disneyland!

I'm so pleased to report that not one, but three colleagues here at the University of Kentucky Libraries have been recognized by ALA:

Dean Carol Pitts Diedrichs has won the Ross Atkinson Lifetime Achievement Award. A number of us have commented that she seems too young for a lifetime achievement award. (And no, I'm not just saying that to get in good with the boss.) We are very proud of her efforts and are delighted she has been recognized with this prestigious honor. A few words from the press release:

The ultimate practitioner/scholar, Diedrichs has written and spoken extensively on issues in acquisitions, serials, electronic resources, preservation, collection development, technical services organization and scholarly communication. She served for more than a decade as the editor-in-chief of Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, one of the premier peer-reviewed journals in the field. With colleague Trisha Davis, she developed the first Web-based course, Fundamentals of Acquisitions, offered by ALCTS, for which she was honored with an ALCTS Presidential Citation. Through her publications, presentations, committee assignments and consultancies, she has significantly influenced best practice in the rapidly changing fields of collections and acquisitions.

Becky Ryder, Head of Preservation, has won the first ever LBI George Cunha and Susan Swartzburg Preservation Award. In addition to her outstanding, internationally recognized work in preservation, Becky is also a great traveling companion (Ecuador '06--woo!). An excerpt from the press release:

With her expertise in preservation microfilming efforts, she has readily moved that expertise into the digital environment. For 12 years she was project director of the SOLINET/ASERL cooperative microfilming projects. Ms. Ryder also has served as project co-manager of “Beyond the Shelf: Serving Historic Kentuckiana Through Virtual Access,” through which 2,700 titles serving as the premier representation of Kentucky history are available through the Kentucky Virtual Library. She has been an integral part of the University of Kentucky National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) team, since the inception of the program in 2005. Taking lessons learned from NDNP, she and her institutional colleagues developed the “Meta - Morphosis” conference to share approaches in converting early newspapers on microfilm and preserving the resulting digital content. Ryder's work with the Keenland Racetrack Library on a hybrid microfilm/digital project makes available a keyword searchable digital archive of the Triple Crown race coverage, while preserving the physical volumes and addressing long-term storage of the digital files.

Finally, I am especially delighted that my colleague here at the Hub, Alice Wasielewski, has won an ALA/EBSCO Conference Sponsorship to attend the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. The award provides up to $1000 to reimburse expenses to attend the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA. Only ten applicants are selected annually for this competitive national award. Alice has been an essential part of the Hub team since opening day in early 2007. This award is well-deserved, and I am so happy for her.

Congratulations you all!