Although I actually finished my INFO580 research project some time ago – in October of last year – I’ve been slow in making it available here on the blog. A combination of work, Christmas, and taking an interesting paper on Web and Intranet Content Management over trimester three has really meant that I’ve barely thought about my research, and Second Life in general, since finishing the project.

Though I’ve been a bit busy lately, my paper (read the full thing as pdf) reflects my ongoing interest in the way that interfaces for engaging with information (particularly library interfaces) might be better designed to facilitate interaction, ease of use, and community. I’ll certainly be continuing to think about these issues in the coming months, particularly as I have been asked to contribute to the upcoming TELSIG National Seminar and talk about my research project and about Second Life Libraries, with the help of some rather brilliant Second Life educators – in June of this year.

Finishing this project marks the end of my Masters in Library and Information Studies. With the completion of this professional qualification, as well as the more recent “certificate of proficiency” I’ve obtained in Web and Intranet Content Managment, I’m now interested in continuing to explore Information Architecture and Interaction Design.

This week is orientation week at Victoria University, and yesterday I gave my first orientation session to the students. This presentation was a pretty simple introduction to all things library, with a friendly and welcoming tone, for first years up at the central Kelburn library. I’ll be taking some more complex ones soon enough, for Second Year Design, and hopefully Architecture, too.

For this talk, which I’ll be repeating on Thursday (tomorrow!), my main goal was just to encourage the students to talk to their reference librarians when it comes time to start thinking about their assignments.

All in all, I think my first run through went pretty well, though I was about five minutes under time, which means I can possibly embellish a bit more. I’m particularly pleased as it was an excellent opportunity to try out two neat resources: Creative Commons image search and Powerpoint with Google Documents.

So, take a look at my presentation – and then read on for more about the two best parts of the process of putting it together. You can have a look at the full screen version, if you prefer.

There’s nothing like having wonderful images to accompany your slides, and the creative commons search page is an excellent place to start. You can search Google, Yahoo, and Flickr – as well as lesser-known Blip TV (for video), OWL (for music), and SpinXpress (a range of media formats) – with automatic creative-commons filtering, directly from the search page. You can’t meta-search across all three at options at once, unfortunately – but clicking a different tab will replicate your search in that sources.

Flickr is definitely the best choice for great images for presentations. The Flickr community is generally made up of above-average photographers, and significant number of people (myself included) tag their photos as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This means that you can freely use their work, but must credit them, you’re not allowed to sell what you make, and if you modify what they’ve made you must share the new work you’ve made under the same license.

Having snagged my photos from Flickr, I put my presentation together completely using Google Documents’ new presentation tool. I’m impressed with how well it works. Sure, you can’t use MS PowerPoint features like slide transitions, but those just seem unnecessarily flashy anyway. I particularly like the online presentation mode, complete with chat menu down the right hand side. I can see this working really well for a low-budget distance class somewhere out there. The group could sign on to a group audio/videoconferencing chat client (such as Skype), and then listen to the instructor speak, watch the slides via Google Documents, and type in their comments and responses.

I particularly like that idea because it is further hammering in the same concept we’re using when arguing for Instant Messaging reference services over traditional Virtual Reference clients – that an collection of different software working together (e.g. IM + IM agreggator client + wiki), is far more powerful a tool than the “all-in-one” proprietary system. It’s another way we can surround ourselves with a flexible network of tools.

Coreopsis Major left clues in the form of call numbers at her library, at first on tables, then leading to books at various locations around the library, to take the finder of these clues on a treasure hunt around the library. Eventually, there’s treasure at the end.

(I borrowed these pictures from Coreopsis Major’s page on SFZero, go check out her project!)

Coreopsis was playing SFZero, a kind of Alternate Reality Game. In this game, players create “Characters” who perform all kinds of “tasks” out in the real world in order to obtain completion “scores” when they report back their progress on the website. In many cases, the tasks, submitted by other players to the game, are simple, yet ambiguous, designed to allow players to exercise huge amounts of creativity.

Coreopsis’ task – that spurred her to create her game – was simply “Leave Clues“. Other tasks are as simple and quirky as “Make it Work” (which players have generally interpreted to mean “fix something”) and “Irregular Animal Documentation” (“document an animal you rarely see”).

Tasks, and Characters (based on what tasks they perform most), are divided into “institutional bureaucracies” which embody particular themes of thought-provoking play. “The EquivalenZ project seeks to fulfill the originating fantasies of Virtual Reality”, “The city suffers from a Humanitarian Crisis and appeals for unilateral humanitarian aid, and basic human rights”, ” The Biome Group concerns itself with an exploration of the living structure of the City”, and so on.

I think SFZero as a project is especially cool because it is encouraging players to think about the world around them in new ways, adding playfulness to otherwise ordinary spaces and activities. In the process of re-thinking their everyday lives, SFZero players also impact others around them. Coreopsis Major’s simple treasure hunt creates a sense of mystery, adventure and exploration in the otherwise ordinary library activity of looking up and locating call numbers. I wonder what other ideas we could come up with to create excitement about common library activities, in ways that teach students basic skills at the same time.Coreopsis Major’s simple treasure hunt creates a sense of mystery, adventure and exploration in the otherwise ordinary library activity of locating call numbers.

One of the main reasons I enrolled in this course was to provide myself with an opportunity to consider in detail the design of our own library website here at Victoria. I wanted an opportunity to prepare for the library’s planned total re-design of our web presence later in 2008. So, for this assignment, I’ve decided to select the Victoria library website as my target, in the hope that it will help stimulate and refine my ideas about the website’s future growth. Perhaps I’ll have the change to engage with the team responsible for the re-design!

From reading the assignment brief, I think the main areas my report will need to address are:

• Site Structure: The information architecture of the site. How is it the content organized?
• Navigation and Design: The interface for the user. How does a user move through the site? Does the design of the pages make the structure of the site visible to the user?
• Writing Style & Metadata: Does the writing match the look and feel of the site? Does it adhere to any standardized format? Is it described correctly
• Accessibility: Does the website meet relevant accessibility standards? Are there particular standards that our library website should comply with?

Additionally, I need to refer to more abstract questions as well:

• What is the overall strategy of the site? Is this reflected in the design of the areas listed above?
• Who are the likely users of the library site? What sorts of features are important to these users, and are these included in the site design?

I’m going to try to blog my progress a little as I work through the assignment, and will be creating a project page to collect these posts and other information about the assignment.