Have you heard about virtual worlds? Ever wonder what how they might
be used in the world of archives and special collections?
Come find out at Stanford University’s Special Collections and
University Archives’ virtual “Open House” in the virtual world Second
Life on Friday, July 31st from 9:00 to 11:00a.m. (PST). Drop in
anytime during these hours for an overview of our new Virtual Archives
which allows scholars to discover and use our primary resources in a
virtual environment.
For the first time scholars and the casual passersby can walk
Stanford's closed stacks and browse some of our manuscript
collections—a practice not offered in real life. Stanford's Virtual
Archive is a very small but growing subset of our deep storage
facility replicated in Second Life. Patrons can open virtual Hollinger
boxes and a sampling of scanned documents from the real life box will
appear along with a link to that collection’s online finding aid. They
can then post their reference questions on the bulletin board which
sends email to our Special Collections staff. Stanford's Virtual
Archive provides access to patrons around the world without
endangering the collection.
Second Life (SL) is a virtual world where more than 15 million users
have created avatars--or online personas--enabling them to explore SL
and interact with others from in real time. Reference in SL occurs
through in-world text and voice chat as well as our reference bulletin
board.
Please join us at our Open House to learn more at the following SLURL
address (this is the Second Life location for the Stanford University
Special Collections’ Virtual Archive):
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stanford%20University%20Libraries/85/224/33
This address launches the Second Life application from your web
browser. For those not already in SL, joining is free at
http://secondlife.com/ and we will be happy to help get you acclimated
in-world. Look for Sicilia Tiratzo and my colleague in SL, Mollie
Mavendorf. We will be on hand to demonstrate the archives site and
answer your questions. We look forward to seeing you “in world” on
July 31st.
Mattie
--
Mattie Taormina
Head of Public Service & Processing Manuscripts Librarian
Dept. of Special Collections
Green Library
Stanford University
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94306
(650) 724-4613
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com