I’m flying to Melbourne on Friday to spend the weekend there before talking on Monday about “Virtual Libraries: Real Librarians” at the State Library of Victoria’s training day for public librarians Libraries, Web2.0 and Other Internet Stuff. I’m excited about spending a whole day hearing about libraries.
I spent last weekend creating new slides. After outlining what is Second Life and how libraries are using it, I will talk about ten ways Australian public librarians can get involved. I’m aiming to do a live demo on the day -with the audience telling my avatar what to do. I also pointed my video camera at the screen as I did a tour of Info Island and the Australian Libraries Building so that I have a backup if glitchiness happens.
I even upgraded the driver for my video card so that there is no chance of Emerald being clothed in textures in her environment instead of clothing textures. (It used to get a bit embarrassing when a tree texture didn’t quite cover what ought to be covered).
After a tech run through at the State Library on Friday afternoon, I will be free until Sunday. Michelle, the Connecting Librarian, is taking me to St Kilda Markets and a visit to her home and her library until the evening when we have dinner with Christine McKenzie from Yarra Plenty and Helene Blowers from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County.
I’m really excited about meeting these folk. Michelle and I have worked together on librariesinteract.info for over a year and I have watched the Learning 2.0 program as it’s grown up and moved to Australia. I was tempted to bring a mike and make a podcast that night, but I’m leaving it at home and just enjoying the company instead.
Of course on Saturday morning I will be popping to the local K-Mart or Target to pick up a copy of the new Harry Potter. No kids and the day to myself to read it! I would be better off saving it until the plane trip home, however. If anyone would like to suggest something I shouldn’t miss in Melbourne or catch up for a coffee or show me their library, I’d be happy to do so on Friday night or Saturday. Just email me sirexkat @ gmail dot com .
I get home about 10:30 on Monday night, my very lovely boss has offered to do my desk shift so I can recover, then I fly back to Melbourne again at 3:30 on Thursday to attend the Carrick Exchange focus group the next morning. If my kids and Co-Pilot didn’t want to see me, then I could maybe miss a flight or two and just stay in Melbourne all week.