Alliance Virtual Library one of top ten Linden Prize Finalists for Innovation in Second Life

Alliance Virtual Library, coordinated by the Alliance Library System and staffed by hundreds ofvolunteers from all over the world, has been named as oneof 10 finalists for the Linden Prize which will be announced on April 30.

For more information on the award and the finalists, check out this url:https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/04/23/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-linden-prize

Linden Lab received over 230 applications for the award from all over the worldwhich illustrate creative and diverse uses of the virtual world of Second Life, with compelling impact that is both broad and deep. The winner will receive a $10,000 US dollars prize. The award is for an innovative inworld project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world. The award is intended to align with Linden Lab’s company mission–to connect all people to an online world that advances the human condition. For more information contact Lori Bell at ALS, lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com.

Alexandrian Free Library Events, April 21-28, 2009

Alexandrian Free Library: Caledon, Winterfell, Steelhead, New Toulouse, New Babbage, Amatsu Shima, West of Ireland, Steeltopia, Deadwood, Al Andalus & Constantinople Library Events for April 20-28 2009


New Series at the Caledon Library!
Folklore of the British Isles with Afsaneh Metaluna
3rd Mondays, 4pm

Inaugural lecture, Mon, April 20, 4pm – 5pm
Tinyville Library, Tinyville, Caledon Tanglewood
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Tanglewood/23/214/23/

Folklorist Afsenah Metaluna will guide us in a new exploration each month; with illustrative stories and her own commentary she'll expose to our understanding some facet of the rich and varied folklore of the British Isles. In the Storyteller's Own Words…
"Rather than a repository of Märchen (wonder tales more or less of the "Grimm's" variety) much of the folklore of England is comprised of local legends that combine references to beliefs and customs and aspects of daily life, particularly rural life. This is contrasted with English ballads and broadsides, which have a strong tradition of their own, as well as the folklore around customs, dance and belief. The wonder tales exist too, though more in the Celtic regions."

This month, to get us started, she will tell and comment on short tales from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, plus "The Apple Tree Man" a legend that, she says "deals with customs as well as systems of land tenure and inheritance, making it a kind of microcosm of the strength of English narrative lore."
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WOI – Charlotte’s Web with Caledonia Skytower
Monday – April 20 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Part One: One of the most beloved works by a prodigious and beloved author. Fern becomes the passionate advocate for the “runt of the litter” pig she names “Wilbur”, and thus begins a miraculous friendship that transforms them both. All stories are presented in Voice
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WOI - Dandelion Wine with Gyro Muggins
Tuesday – April 21 @ 5.30pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Join us as Gyro reads "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury
Green Town, Illinois
"There was a junkman who saved lives.
"There was a pair of sneakers that could make you run faster than a deer.
"There was a human time machine.
"There was a wax witch that could tell real fortunes.
"There was a man who almost wrecked happiness by building a happiness machine.
"AND there was a twelve-year old boy, named Douglas Spalding, who found himself very much at home in this extraordinary world."

All stories are presented in Voice.
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WOI – The Bat Poet by Randall Jarrell with Aoife Lorefield
Tuesday – April 21 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

This lovely tale introduces––yes!––a bat who writes poetry. Discover this story as Aoife reads the poems, and some of the prose, of this small, brown, furry, thoughtful bat.

All stories are presented in Voice.
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Winterfell Library - Aianna's Fireside Tales
Wed, April 22, 6pm – 7pm
Bard's Bonfire, Winterfell Taure En Lor
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Winterfell/21/222/23

"Here is where the dragon roams,
The faerie plays, the gnome hides.
Across the centuries, from far to home,
Here is where the magic abides!"

Join us every other Wednesday at 6 PM SLT on Bard's Island in Winterfell as Aianna reads to us magical tales. This week she reads "Romano Drom" by Charles de Lint. All stories are presented in Voice

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WOI – The Song of the Pearl with Lilia Quinnell
Wednesday – April 22 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Join us for part 2 of this book, the story of Margaret Redmond, who dies at seventeen, and finds that to gain understanding of self and to overcome a deep hatred that has marred her last years she must relive parts of her earlier lives on earth. All stories are presented in Voice.
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WOI – Ghosts and Haunts with Shandon Loring
Thursday – April 23 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Tonight: The Four-Fifteen Express by Amelia B. Edwards. What is a ghost? A disembodied spirit? A personality 'residue'? A time image? A time image - hmmmmm..... Thought waves which have become impregnated in the woodwork, the very atmosphere, and can be transformed into the likeness of their dead creator.

All stories are presented in Voice.
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WOI – Sunday Stories with Gyro Muggins
Sunday – April 26 @ 2pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

The Piper and the Puca by Douglas Hyde
A half fool of a man who loved music but could never master more than one tune has an encounter with a Puca who takes him one night to a Banshee's feast. There the Puca introduces the man as "the best piper in Ireland"...

The Pudding Bewitched by William Carleton
A good, or possibly not so good, Catholic woman marries a "Prosbytarian," thereby rousing the ire of one of her uncles, a fairy-bewitched tinker. He puts a curse on them which manifests itself in the form of a "bewitched pudding" which leads most of the town thru a merry chase across the countryside.

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WOI – Charlotte’s Web (pt 2) with Caledonia Skytower
Monday – April 27 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Part Two: As Wilbur gets settled down at Zuckerman’s farm, his ultimate fate as a pig becomes an issue, and he meets a new and amazing friend who brings him insight and wisdom, as their two lives become wrapped together. Come and discover the many mysteries in Charlotte’s web!

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Whitman Weekly
A Discussion led by Dame Kghia Gheardi of the works of Walt Whitman
Tuesday, April 28 at 4pm SLT
Caledon Library, on the Hub in Victoria City
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/160/117/23

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is one of the works at the foundations of American poetry. Its expansive attempt to capture the spirit and landscape of the 19th century United States has influenced a culture, and its rich language continues to inspire readers today as it has for the century and a half of its existence.

Whitman Weekly will provide an opportunity to look closely at this beloved work. Each week we'll spend an hour discussing its context and examining the poetry of the the 1855 first edition.

The series will also give those who love Leaves of Grass, and those who would like to learn more, an opportunity to explore Whitman's vigorous and heartfelt poetry together.

April 28 - Preface (http://tinyurl.com/log-preface) including Whitman's charge to American poets

" The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of races. Of them a bard is to be commensurate with a people. To him the other continents arrive as contributions . . . he gives them reception for their sake and his own sake. His spirit responds to his country's spirit . . . . he incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes."

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WOI – And He Built a Crooked House with Gyro Muggins
Tuesday – April 28 @ 5:30pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

This story by Robert Heinlein is a tongue-in-cheek look at architecture and mathematics gone wrong. In the 1940's architect builds a house based on a 3 Dimensional representation of a 4th Dimensional cube. It seems fine until a slight tremor collapses the house into the more stable state of a real 4th Dimensional cube, with the occupants still in it.
All stories are presented in Voice.

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WOI – The Sonnets of Shakespeare with Aoife Lorefield
Tuesday – April 28 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

As we approach the explosion of Spring and festival of love that is May Day, who better to read than Shakespeare? Tonight Aoife will read some of the sonnets we all love, and perhaps a few you may not have heard in a while.

Presented in Voice.

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WOI – The Awful Truth Behind Mother Goose with Gracee Andel
Wednesday – April 29 @ 7pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Learn what was behind those 'silly childhood rhymes' that were actually full of people, politics and intrigue. (By popular demand, a repeat of an earlier performance.)
All stories are presented in Voice.

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gentlebeings, your servant

JJ Drinkwater

Events from the Alexandrian Free Library Consortium

Greetings and Salutations!  

The Alexandrian Free Library consortium is composed of Libraries that have been created within the virtual world that is Second Life, to serve communities that have organized themselves there. The collections, policies, and events of each member library is determined by the social and cultural profile of the community it serves. One such community and library are described in Chapter 9 of Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries, "Virtual Neighborhoods, Real Communities," which describes the Library of Caledon.

The current member libraries serve the communities of Caledon, Winterfell, Steelhead, New Toulouse, Babbage, Amatsu Shima, West of Ireland, Steeltopia, Deadwood, and Al Andalus, and will soon be joined by the new and compendious Library of Constantinople

Most weeks, I'll be posting a list of AlexLib events here, including book discussions, listening parties, story hours, storytelling sessions, lectures and exhibit openings. The readers of this blog are most cordially invited to join us in our literary frolickings and sundry cultural diversions.  To start off this week, I wish to highlight 5 or 6 very special events

gentlebeings, your servant

JJ Drinkwater

Librarian of Caledon

~~

Story Session at the Falling Anvil - Spring Goes Sproing
Mon, April 13, 5pm – 8pm
The Falling Anvil Public House , Caledon Tamrannoch
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Tamrannoch/230/108/22

Spring has come! Flowers bloom, bees buzz, we clean our houses, dens and caves in the spirit of "out with the old and in with the new." Join us with your stories of all that is refreshed and renewed.

The Storytelling Sessions at Caledon's beloved Anvil are one of the the longest-running story night traditions in Second Life. Once every season we gather to celebrate, tell old and new stories, and enjoy each others company.  All are welcome, whether to tell a tale or listen.

Hosted by Master Storyteller Aldo Stern, and sponsored by the Caledon Library and the Clan of Seafarers and Storytellers

~~

Caledon Library's Whitman Weekly Discussion Series

led by Kghia Gherardi
Week 2, The Preface to Leaves of Grass
Tuesday April 15, 4pm SLT
Caledon Library, on the Hub in Victoria City
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/160/117/23

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is one of the works at the foundations of American poetry. Its expansive attempt to capture the spirit and landscape of the 19th century United States has influenced a culture, and its rich language continues to inspire readers today as it has for the century and a half of its existence.
Whitman Weekly provides an opportunity to look closely at this beloved work: each week we spend an hour discussing its context and examining the poetry of the the 1855 first edition.The series also gives those who love Leaves of Grass and those who would like to learn more an opportunity to explore Whitman's vigorous and heartfelt poetry together.
This week, we will discuss the preface to the work, which addresses the reader in Whitman's characteristically exuberant, straightforward, and singing prose. A copy may be found in the aether at http://tinyurl.com/log-preface

~~

Deadwood Library's Lena Kjeller Memorial Lecture Series
Truth and Lies in the Pioneer Press: How the West was Worded
April 19, 2009, 1:00 PM SLT
The Dakota Theater/Deadwood Memorial Library, Deadwood 1876
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Phoenix%20Pass/215/155/655

Join the editor of the Deadwood sim's newspaper, plus Wild Bill Hickok and Doc Holliday, for a talk and slideshow about concepts of truth in frontier journalism. The editor, Poohneil "Neil" Streeter, whose typist interprets a 19th Century newspaper publisher in living history events, has helped with other volunteers to publish more than 50 issues of an 1870s newspaper for the Deadwood sim since February 2008. He will discuss how concepts of truth changed during the evolution of newspapers in the 19th century. Hickok and Holliday will talk both about how they used the press - and were used by the press - in their day.
This is the inaugural presentation in the Deadwood Library's Lena Kjeller Memorial Lecture Series. The series is named after the Deadwood Library's founder whose typist died earlier this year. Following the talk, at about 2:00 PM, a plaque in the Deadwood Memorial Library will be dedicated in memory of Lena and her typist.
All Second Life residents and guests, particularly those with an interest in virtual libraries and immersion learning experiments, are cordially invited to attend both the lecture and the dedication ceremony. The Deadwood Memorial Library is located in the modern part of the sim so 19th Century dress, while encouraged, is not required. Please address any questions to Diogenes Kuhr or to Deadwood Library Director Blitzer Renfold.

~~

Babbage Aether Salon presents Submersibles!
Sunday, April 19 at 2 pm slt
Babbage Palisade
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/97/59/105/

Stealth and suprise. Danger in the depths. Harnessing the power of a submersible means being able to approach an enemy undetected, even by the keenest eyes. Nations that control the seas take warning - below the surface, your enemies approach, and the battlefield is changed forever.
This month, Aether Salon will examine early submersibles, their impact on the development of the diverse technologies and influence on warfare. There will, of course, also be cake, conversation, and an eye-popping craft to follow.
Joining us will be Mr. Jasper Kiergarten of New Babbage and Armada, who has rebuilt the CSS Hunley in sharp detail. For a broader view, Commodore O'Toole of the Fleet of Wrath Exiles will provide a survey of US Civil-War era submersibles and semi-submersibles from the 'mystery sub' of New Orleans through the Union Navy's ill-fated Alligator boat.
Hold your breath and prepare to dive in to this most interesting and technical topic.

~~

Puck of Pook’s Hill with Simeon Beresford
Sunday – April 19 @ 2pm
West of Ireland Library & Cultural Center, West of Ireland
http://slurl.com/secondlife/West%20of%20Ireland/44/157/29

Puck of Pook's Hill is a children's book by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1906, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of history. The stories are all told to two children living near Pevensey by people magically plucked out of history by Puck. All stories are presented in Voice

~~

Steelhead Public Library Steampunk Discussion Series
Clockwork Dolls & Mechanical Turks: Exploring Victorian Automata
Sunday, April 19, 6pm slt
Steelhead Public Library
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Steelhead/118/208/24

The amazing developments in engineering during the Victorian age gave rise to much speculation about further possibilities. Among these was the belief that mechanical men and animals were just around the corner. What actual scientific developments gave rise to novels like The Steamman of the Plains? Why were people so ready to believe in frauds such as The Amazing Mechanical Turk? Please join us as Mr Bartleby Kidd discusses Victorian experiments in robotics.

~~

Introducing a New Series at the Caledon Library!
Folklore of the British Isles with Afsaneh Metaluna
3rd Mondays, 4pm
Inaugural lecture, Mon, April 20, 4pm – 5pm
Tinyville Library, Tinyville, Caledon Tanglewood
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Tanglewood/23/214/23/

Folklorist Afsenah Metaluna will guide us in a new exploration each month; with illustrative stories and her own commentary she'll expose to our understanding some facet of the rich and varied folklore of the British Isles. In the Storyteller's Own Words…
"Rather than a repository of Märchen (wonder tales more or less of the "Grimm's" variety) much of the folklore of England is comprised of local legends that combine references to beliefs and customs and aspects of daily life, particularly rural life. This is contrasted with English ballads and broadsides, which have a strong tradition of their own, as well as the folklore around customs, dance and belief. The wonder tales exist too, though more in the Celtic regions."
This month, to get us started, she will tell and comment on short tales from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, plus "The Apple Tree Man" a legend that, she says "deals with customs as well as systems of land tenure and inheritance, making it a kind of microcosm of the strength of English narrative lore."

~~

2nd annual Virtual Worlds, libraries, education and museum conference

Virtual Worlds Libraries, Education, and Musuems Conference
The technology of virtual worlds is opening up new possibilities for students and lifelong learners. Many experts say we are moving from the era of the two-dimensional page to the era of three-dimensional virtual worlds. The second annual Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums Conference provides a gathering place for librarians, information professionals, educators, museologists, and others to learn about and discuss the educational, informational, and cultural opportunities of virtual worlds. The conference will be held on April 24-25, 2009. For more information and to register, go to the conference website at http://www.alliancelibraries.info/virtualworlds/index.html. Registration is $49 and helps cover costs for the operation of Alliance Virtual Library in Second Life.

Keynote speakers include Jeremy Kemp, San Jose State University; Anders Gronstedt of the Gronstedt Group; and Bryan Carter, University of Central Missouri. Please contact Tom Peters at tapinformatoin@yahoo.com for more information.
Conference sponsors are Alliance Library System, TAP Information Services, and Learning Times.