Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian

An article appeared in our campus “Daily News” today about the new Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian. It’s a great article and really highlights how the library is transforming. Check it out!

http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=4868

Gartner Group says: “By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a second life”

Stephen Abram visited our campus a couple of days ago and alerted me to a recent article in Forbes. According to the article:

By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a “second life,” but not necessarily in Second Life, according to Gartner, Inc. Their “five laws” are interesting:

First Law: The initial reaction….is to dismiss them …of no benefit and…something to be banned for wasting…resources and time.

Second Law: “Behind every avatar is a real person.”

Third Law: Be relevant and add value.

Fourth Law: “Understand and contain the downside”

Fifth Law: This is a long haul.

They add: “Find enthusiasts within your enterprise and support them. Understand the implications for access to open virtual platforms from within the enterprise and the risks involved,” and “Despite the concerns within companies, don’t ignore this trend.

McMaster just announced our pilot project in Second Life and a new position dedicated to development of immersive learning/gaming environments. I’m very pleased that we’re at the forefront of these developments in libraries.

Daily news at McMaster: McMaster Libraries offer research services on Second Life

Our university “Daily News” service just announced our offerings in Second Life.

Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian appointed

The University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Shawn McCann to the position of Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian. Shawn comes to us from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he is the Digital Projects Librarian and has also held the position Web Librarian. Shawn’s official start date is August 1 2007. Shawn’s primary responsibility will be for exploring, creating, supporting and promoting library resources through gaming and virtual worlds. In particular, he brings strong technical skills; library experience; grant writing; classroom teaching experience; and, of course, a personal interest in gaming.

We believe this is the first position of its kind. The hiring of an Immersive Learning Librarian places McMaster in a leadership position. This position will provide an opportunity for the libraries to provide leadership in research, teaching and learning through the implementation of gaming environments and virtal worlds.

Gaming in libraries at CNI

Interesting post from Bryan Alexander on a session at the Coalition for Networked Information Krista Godfrey, our librarian who is designing our Second Life space, is at CNI. I hope she’ll blog about it later!

In the meantime, I’m at BCNET where I am also talking about gaming. My slides are now posted. If I get the slides from the other panelists I’ll post those as well. It was an interesting mix of gamers and non-gamers, IT folk, faculty, and a librarian.

It seems gaming in libraries is starting to pick up steam. Good to see people talking about it at national conferences!

Hamilton Spectator

The local newspaper ran a story about us on February 8. You can read it online. They focused on gaming and virtual words.

ALA Conference on Gaming

ALA is sponsoring a conference on Gaming, Learning and Libraries

Mark your calendars! It looks interesting!

World of Warcraft and innovation in libraries

Ok, so the title is a bit misleading. I’m working on a couple of presentations that I have coming up on gaming and innovation. So, for “inspiration” I was playing World of Warcraft this morning. I’m enjoying the Burning Crusade expansion. I’m currently a level 64 Tauren hunter named Tavrnwr on the Norgannon server. Stop and say “hi” if you see me. I’ve included a pic of my alter ego.