Community Virtual Library Tour, Monday, April 25, 7 p.m. SLT (pacific time)

Tweet ARA student group meeting/virtual tour: Arranged by ARA but open to all!
Date: April 25, 2011
Time: 7 p.m. SLT (pacific)
Location: Community Virtual Library
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/150/96/23
Host/Tour Guide: Dr. Diane Nahl (avatar Adra Letov)

Note: To save time, we will not meet on VCARA but head straight to the Community Virtual Library.

Dr. Nahl is a Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Library and Information Science Program. She publishes research on information behavior, affective computing and information technology literacy, and teaches courses in reference services, information literacy instruction and human computer interaction. Dr. Nahl is going to invite some of her students to join us as well, so you will have a chance to meet fellow LIS students.

Did you know April is Records & Information Management Month?

Tweet Well, it is. And ARMA International, along with local ARMA chapters, have many exciting and educational events planned across the globe. Just yesterday, I had the pleasure to be one of the presenters at the Metro Maryland Seminar 2011, which took place at the University of Maryland Shady Grove Conference Center.

Highlights of the conference were shared on Twitter, and once in a while with the audience on the large screen shown in this image.

It provided me the welcome opportunity to discuss a topic I passionately believe in Reocrds Management: The Cornerstone of an Effective Information Governance Strategy. I also was invited to provide highlights of a recent research report, How Federal Agencies Can Effectively Manage Recorsds Created Using New Social Media Tools.

It was also an opportunity to learn from my two co-presenters: Michael "Mike" Daconta and Richard Hogg.

Michael "Mike" Daconta, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Accelerated Information Management (AIM), LLC provided his perspective on Information Management and Transparency in the Cloud. Mike is the author of a number of works, including The Smeantic Web: a Guide to the future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management.

Richard Hogg, ERMp, B.Sc, MBCS, CITP has been with IBM since the 2003 acquisition of Tarian Software, where he served as Chief Client Officer. Richard, an IBM Redbooks author, shared his views on RM for the Future .. what is needed today and future challenges, in his presentation titled, Information Governance 2.0+.

Social Media @ BHIC: How we achieve our goals by using Social Media

Tweet Last evening Christian van der Ven captivated an audience of students and professionals during a Webinar as part of the MARA Guest Lecture Series in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

His presentation described how archivists at the Brabant Historical Information Center (BHIC) in the Netherlands use social media to highlight the archives' collections, keep in touch with patrons, for crowdsourcing and more.

Christian van der Ven is a Coördinator of Reference Services at the Brabant Historical Information Center (BHIC) in the Netherlands. At the BHIC he is also responsible for the Web 2.0 and Social Media projects. Among Dutch archivists he is a world-famous blogger, and community manager of the online Dutch Archives 2.0 network.

Among the tools in the BHIC's Web 2.0 toolbox that are used to interact with the public are: the BHIC Website in general, Forums and Webcare, Chat, Blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Wikipedia and Facebook.

To learn more about Christian, read his profile on the Archivists: The Social Network for Archivists at http://archives20.ning.com/profile/ChristianvanderVen

Voki Cartoon

Tweet Just had to try this tool! Select the arrow below my 'cartoon' picture to hear me speak.  

The Road to Deadwood

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It's been such a busy week that I haven't had a chance to recap our tour in Second Life of "the Road to Deadwood" on Monday, April 4th.  The sim that replicates a Colorado mining town from the late 19th Century provides a realistic glimpse into the lifes and times of the inhabitants.  A group of students and friends met in the Senate in VCARA (Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration) to learn about the sim from resident Martha Jane Cannary Burke, better known as Calamity Jane.

The group then teleported to the sim and were greeted by co-owner Caed Aldwych.  Visitors were required to wear appropriate garb and had the opportunity to shop for items in the general store and pan for gold in a creek near the town.  What fun!  If you are interested in learning more about what's behind "the Road to Deadwood," plan to attend the VCARA Conference on May 24th in Second Life.  Caed Aldwych is one of the two keynote speakers.  Poster presentations follow the speakers and provide glimpses into lives and times of others. Watch for a futrue blog post about the conference. But in the meantime, visit their website to read more about "the Road to Deadwood"