Interview with Ebonye Bennett, Library Associate, Georgia Military College

1. What web 2.0 tools are you working with at GMC library?

We do not use very many Web 2.0 tools w at GMC library at this time.  The College itself has Facebook and Twiter pages.  Elizabeth has created a mobile site for our library, however, it has not been implemented yet.


2.   a) Can you describe the adaption process for any one of the systems you work with?

Elizabeth was working with Second Life virtual world in her eLearning graduate assistant job and told me about it and showed it to me. She uses it as a tool to help create curricula for Spanish classes at GMC.  She is also a reference librarian (or Cybrarian) in Second Life too.  Because she was already doing this independently in the Community Virtual Library, we just began spreading the word about it to our faculty and students at GMC.  She weekly serves as a reference librarian and holds office hours there too.

b) What were some of the motivations for adapting that system?
Really, because Second Life was already being used, it wasn’t a matter of adapting the system, but just promoting what was already being done.   Most of the faculty and students were unaware of Second Life, so it was new to them.  And because we work in an eLibrary it is nice to be able to identify a Web 2.0 tool that had pedagogical applications that we could help support.   

c) Can you describe the decision-making criteria in using that particular system?
See b

d) What were the staff’s responses to using this system in the library?
There are many differences of opinions.  Most find to be similar to a video game which has positive and negative connotations to it.  Some see it lacking educational value.  Many see it as too resource-intensive to use on a large scale.  Some have created avatars and explored it.

3.   a) What departments in the library actively use these systems?

In our library branch at Valdosta, we have two employees.  I work full-time during the day and Elizabeth works part-time in the evenings.  We have two student employees.  Elizabeth is the one who primarily uses Second Life.

b) What function do they serve for these departments?

Some of our students are very technically savvy, other are picking up a mouse for the first time.  We use Second Life to facilitate reference, but probably more so we use it to stimulate interest in digital literacy.

4. If they are using technologies such as blogs, how are their usage statistics?

At this point we are not keeping statistics for Second Life.

5. How do they justify allocation of resources for virtual presence (a second life or facebook presence, virtual reference services etc ) if they have?

As there really are no additional monetary resources being expended on Second Life, no justification has been necessary to use it.