I’ve copied the announcement below (my annotations in parens) from Connecting Librarian (thanks Michelle). It’s all about using Second Life to host an Australia-wide librarian staff party.

I am almost embarrassed to admit that I am afraid of SL and have not yet checked it out. Afraid? Yes, I’m afraid that it might suck me in and I’ll never come out again. But this is cool. I may even see if I can get my laptop all jazzed up so that I can attend, unless the time zone thing is prohibitive. I’m fascinated by this idea and am anxious to see how it turns out. Surely there are about a million other implementations. What’s next?

And if you’d like more info on Second Life, check out Who Needs a Second Life? (article) or visited the Second Life library lately? (discussion) at WebJunction.

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The Australian libraries blog, librariesinteract.info, is hosting an end-of year party in Second Life on 13th December, 6pm to 8pm Western Australian time. (Wow!!)

(In case you haven’t heard…) Second Life is a virtual world, with a population of over 1 million, in which large companies, schools and Universities (IBM, Dell, Harvard) have set up shop. Reuters newsagency has its own correspondent there. According to a September 2006 Popular Science article, Second Life, through currency trading, shopping and land sales, has a GDP of $64 Million. Recently, Australian Libraries were given a free building for a year on Cybrary City, courtesy of Talis and the Alliance Library System in return for 2 hours per week work on library services for SL residents. (Very cool!)

The party will include a tour of Info Island and Info Island II by Lori Bell from Alliance Library Systems. We will follow the yellow brick road from the Oz library to the Kansas State Library Virtual Branch next door. Then, back to our building to hang out… dance on the dance floor, snare some cyber snacks, and go easy on the virtual alcoholic beverages.

You can join in virtually from your own PC, or come and look over our shoulders in real life. If you join in virtually, it would be a good idea to check out Second Life before the event:
1. Go to the Second Life site
2. Check the systems requirements
3. Go to the join up page and choose one of the family names offered..and make up your first name
4. You will be asked for your credit card details, but do not have to give them
5. Download the Second Life client to your PC
6. Choose how you’d like your avatar (representation in SL) to look
7. Enter…explore
8. Teleport to just outside our building at: 207, 68, 23. (Often passersby can help you out to do this) Alternatively, we can teleport you to our building, if you send us a message

For further details, please contact Con Wiebrands (flexnib@gmail.com) or Kathryn Greenhill (sirexkat@gmail.com). If you are already exploring Second Life and would like to meet up, our SL names are Paradoxa Kurrajong (Con) and Emerald Dumont (Kathryn) – feel free to IM us!

Hope to see you on Info Island!