Since presenting my poster at last year’s ARLIS/NA conference (2010), much has changed in our plan to execute a visual literacy initiative.
Due to staff and budget cuts we had to be much more realistic in the amount of training and resources needed to carry out our mission. So we decided to start our training, just in the libraries. What has resulted is a fabulous focused initiative that has been exciting and well received. We are still creating learning objects, but they are only on our visual literacy guide (these will no longer be mirrored the Second Life).
You can read our full Second Life Obituary Below. This fall we submitted a new proposal for service that includes our new approach.
I will be discussing our progress and plans at this year’s ARLIS/NA conference in Minneapolis during a session titled Images Unleashed, Expanding Beyond Traditional Disciplines. Hope to see you there!
Anteater Island in Second Life sponsored by the UC Irvine Libraries will be closed on March 1, 2011. Launched in 2007, Anteater Island was to offer a platform for research and teaching to UC Irvine faculty, and to highlight library services. A number of UC Irvine classes utilized the island to do course projects, and one faculty used the space for highlighting journals from the American Anthropological Association. The UC Irvine Libraries created meeting spaces and access points to the online catalog and to digital reference for visitors to the island.
Several great teams have worked on Anteater Island; Kristine Ferry, Dana Peterman, Holly Tomren, and Julia Gelfand investigated Second Life, facilitated the purchase of Anteater Island, created policy and supported the faculty working in the virtual space. At the end of 2009 a second group took over the management of Anteater Island; Virginia Allison, Brian Williams, Julia Gelfand and Danielle Kane. This second Second Life group revitalized Anteater Island through branding and a re-design of the virtual space. This group brought library resources into Second Life by creating a library building and started the discussion about Visual Literacy.
The decision to cancel this virtual world software platform was made after Linden Labs, its provider, will no longer honor educational pricing and the renewal price doubled. After an examination of usage compared to costs, and a decrease in new participation by faculty and students, the Libraries have decided to no longer support Anteater Island. UC Irvine Libraries continues to be committed to monitoring emerging technologies and exploring other tools and services that have application for promoting research, teaching, and library services.
Anteater Island has been photo documented and the images have been saved to the Collections Network Drive as an archive. In addition to these new images I also used some older images of Anteater Island to create a SlideShare about the island: http://www.slideshare.net/dakane/uc-irvine-libraries-anteater-island-in-second-life.
Thank you to everyone who participated in creating and supporting Anteater Island.
On Behalf of the Second Life Team
Danielle (Co-Chair)
Julia Gelfand (Co-Chair)
Virginia Allison
Brian Williams
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Danielle Kane
Research Librarian for Emerging Technologies and Service Innovation
Unit Head: ILC & MRC
University of California, Irvine Libraries
Phone: 949-824-2024
Email: kaned@uci.edu