To start getting your group updates:

1. Sign into WebJunction Illinois
2. Go to the Groups list on your My WebJunction page. (Via the tab at the top of the site)
3. Click on the Actions button by a group for which you want to receive alerts.
4. Click on Manage Notifications and complete the form.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 for each group to start alerts.

Note: If you do not set up alerts for a group, you will not receive them. You can change these settings at any time through the Manage Notifications menu on your My WebJunction page.
This new feature is in addition to the RSS feeds and discussion thread subscriptions that you may have already set up.

For more information about these and other Groups features, read the Groups User Guide. If you encounter any issues, please report them to support@webjunction.org.

There will be a pre-meeting Monday, June 14th for the Instructor Corps, Mentors, and ISL Staff. Follow ILEAD U on Twitter and Facebook for real-time updates June 15-17.

The keynote speech by Beck Tench will be tweeted at 8:30 a.m. CST on June 16. Tench serves as Director for Innovation and Digital Engagement at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC where she studies and experiments with how visitors and staff use technology to plan, enhance and share their everyday lives.

Since 2005, the Northeast Chapter of REFORMA has joined forces with ALA ethnic caucuses to present a terrific conference where library workers network, exchange ideas and listen to quality speakers. What started as an idea has grown into an annual event embraced by REFORMA, AILA, APALA, BCALA and CALA. Come hear best practices in planning, coordinating and hosting a “mini” conference from your colleagues who have had success in their regions. Webinar presenters include Loida Garcia-Febo, REFORMA president, Tess Tobin, REFORMA’s Northeast Chapter; and Haipeng Li and Janice Rice, co-chairs of the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color.

More information on registration on L2.

Mojo Magic! Get your mojo on with a couple of our own info pros, Dianna Wiggins and Lorene Kennard, as they share secret weapons of the Internet by demonstrating tools, widgets and resources that you may not have seen before. Included in this fun, interactive session will be tips and tricks with the latest widgets and applications from the world of social media, aggregation tools that will make you look smarter than you really are (just kidding, but, hey, there’s always room for more!), and just plain fun stuff that you may want to check out for personal or professional reasons.

Best of all, the last part of this session will be featuring you, the audience! Dianna and Lorene are asking those who want to share the spotlight to bring their favorite trick or resource to share with the audience, as time will be provided at the end of their presentation for attendees to walk the group through their own discoveries.

Presenter/Trainer

Dianna Wiggins and Lorene Kennard

Sponsoring Agency

Metropolitan Library System

Archive

Supplemental Materials

Handouts for this session

In this 30 minute session we review how to register for WebJunction Illinois, add an avatar to your WJIL profile and set privacy and communication settings.

Presenters/Trainers:

Lisa Barnhart, WebJunction Illinois Project Coordinator
Dawne Tortorella, WebJunction Illinois Technical Support

Sponsoring Agency:

Illinois State Library

Supplemental Materials:

Create an Account on WJIL
Profile Viewing and Privacy
Create an Avatar
Friends on WJIL
Video Tutorial about My WebJunction

In this session we review how to find and join groups on WebJunction. Groups provide a venue for people with similar professional responsibilities, common projects, and shared interest to join together in discussion and document sharing. We compare WebJunction Global groups and WebJunction Illinois groups.

Presenters/Trainers:

Lisa Barnhart, WebJunction Illinois Project Coordinator
Dawne Tortorella, WebJunction Illinois Technical Support

Sponsoring Agency:

Illinois State Library

Supplemental Materials:

Creating Groups in WebJunction Illinois
Create a Group

I started my Second Life about six months ago. I was anxious to join people on Info Island and demonstrate this emerging technology and means of interaction as I spoke to library groups. I created my avatar (free of course) and jumped right in. I didn’t need an orientation, I just wanted to get to the cool library stuff.

Thus, Muffy Vandeverre was born. She is a furry. As I prepared my demonstration I was horrified as I tried to change my scandalous outfit. Wardrobe malfunction took on a whole new meaning as pieces of clothing slipped off while I frantically tried to cover-up. I was one of those kids who dreamed about giving a speech in front of their 5th grade class with only their underwear on. With nowhere else to turn, I relied on my tech-savvy socially-networked 17-year old daughter. Not even she could return my dignity and leave me with an outfit that my mother would approve of. Never in a million years would I consider myself satisfied with hot pants and a tube top, but that was the best we could do. Actually, I was finally successful in getting a Bradley University Library t-shirt. It must be 100% cotton and I think someone dried it on high – it looks more like painted skin.

After spending over an hour trying to make myself presentable, I did what any self-respecting person would do. I looked for a self-help book. Luckily, “Second Life, the offical guide” had just been released. It was the only book returned on an Amazon search for “second life.” Try it today and there are 16 titles. Maybe if I read them all I will be able to do something besides fly and sit. Actually the first book taught me some very important things about SL.

1. Don’t ignore the orientation – and keep all the notecards you gather on your first journey through Help Island. If you don’t you’ll need a second avatar to collect them. Oh yes, that second avatar will be $9.95 please and yes, I got one. She is very respectable and fully clothed.
2. Just like in real life, understand your milieu before you go wandering around. I chose a furry as my avatar because I thought they were cute. Then I discovered furries have a reputation – I know, stereotypes aren’t always accurate.
3. Clothes do make the man. And a lack of clothes makes for an embarrassing public meeting.

I’m not giving up yet, but I have a good idea whether the Emperor is wearing boxers or briefs. And I sometimes have to suppress a giggle as I hum to myself, “It’s hip to be square.”

I think it is time for some well designed birth control. Within the past year, hundreds of wikis devoted to library topics and resources have sprung forth. Before we continue down this path, it seems like the perfect time to ask some hard questions.

Why is wikipedia so successful? I’d argue that it is due to its comprehensive knowledge base in addition to its devoted author and editor base. If this content was scattered throughout hundreds or thousands of wikis, the effectiveness would be greatly diminished. So why do we insist on creating individual wikis for every project or collection of resources we organize in library wikispace?

Do we really believe in radical trust and shared authorship? In principle, absolutely, in practice – well, I’m not really seeing that as much. We seem nervous to open the floodgates and share wikispace authorship across organizations. It really is much harder to share than to create our own spaces. But, the richness of our content and long-term viability suffer from this approach.

Just some initial thoughts – there will be more along this line as we struggle in Illinois to work within the WebJunction shared wikispace while trying at the same time to develop customized wiki features that require collaboration at the tool level, as well as the content level. It seems easier to just create our own sandbox, but in the long run, we’d rather be playing in the expanse of the beach.

Can tribbles swim?