No Nudity, Please!

There are few things more embarrassing than going to a professional meeting, encountering a glitch in the system, and showing up naked. This is especially mortifying to a 19th Century librarian, such as myself, so one can imagine my delight upon discovering that KRB has some skins with clothing painted on.

Now, one can go to professional meetings with confidence, knowing that the worst that can happen is that one will arrive inappropriately dressed.



At present, these skins can only be found in the lucky chair on the second floor. Here is a direct link:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Horsa/40/105/94

If you end up at a hub, left click on the nearby teleporter, which looks like a white disc on the ground, and choose KRB. Then right click to teleport to the store. Go upstairs and find the above coordinates. Good luck!

A Visit to Trilby's Mill

In this age of digital books and virtual worlds, it may seem a bit strange for someone to build a site in Second Life that showcases how books are made by hand. Well, someone has, and the site has been getting a couple of hundred visitors a year. Trilby Minotaur founded Trilby's Mill shortly after she was rezzed in July 2008. A book artist in real life, she says she felt compelled to do it. "I created an avatar to attend a 'Stepping Into Literature Conference' that I heard about at work, and knew I had to build a bookarts studio." Her first shop was on the mainland, and she photographed her own equipment to use as textures. "I had no idea what I was doing, but it was a lot of fun." At a friend's urging, she took building lessons from SL artist, Spiral Walcher. "Then I had to go back and rebuild everything correctly." She rebuilt a few things yet again after moving to the steampunk Victorian state of Caledon.

Trilby's Mill is housed in a two story watermill. The paper mill occupies the bottom floor, and the papermaking process is laid out clockwise from the two vats.

In the first vat, the mill wheel turns the blades of the Hollander beater, used to reduce cotton rags to fiber. The second vat holds a mold and deckle used to form sheets of paper. A tesla coil powered press squeezes out the excess water. There is also a display of marbled paper, and some slides of how paper is made in Tibet and Nepal.

One can teleport upstairs by clicking on a panel on the floor that says "Up". Upstairs is a steam powered printing press, based on Trilby's real life press, a Vandercook 4. "My press was made in the 1950s, so it was too modern for Caledon. I made up a version of what a Vandercook 4 might have looked like if it had been produced 100 years earlier." A short video on the wall shows the real life Vandercook in action.

There are also type cabinets showing pieces of type that were set by hand, letter by letter, as well as other equipment used in printing.

In the bindery section one can sit down and sew a book while looking at all the presses and tools associated with binding a book by hand. A door leads to a balcony where one can see the waterfall that provides the power to the large waterwheel.

Outside, there is a paper making fiber garden in a small greenhouse. While there, a little hummingbird flew up to greet me.

Trilby plans to add more explanations about what each piece of equipment is used for. Trilby's Mill has moved since this blog was written, so the configuration is slightly different now, but all the major components are still there. To visit, use the following SLURL:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20SouthEnd/18/55/24

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20SouthEnd/17/46/22

Bookbinding and What it Might Lead To

Bookbinding & What It Might Lead To

A Book Arts Exhibit at the Caledon Library

Curated by Incunable Sorbet

April - September 2010

Jack and Elaine Whitehorn Memorial Library

Caledon Victoria City

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/55/202/23

In the 18th Century, Mr. Laurence Sterne experimented with typography in his famous book, "Tristram Shandy". Towards the end of that century, William and Catherine Blake developed illuminated printing. In the 19th century, cover designs on books went from a simple title stamped in gold to multicolor graphic illustrations designed by well known artists. These examples expand our ideas of what a book is supposed to look like. In this exhibit we will endeavor to trace the evolution of artistic bookbinding, and speculate on how it may evolve in the future. Works include Louis Mileman's tabloid circle book, Incunable Sorbet's animated Penny Dreadfuls, ArtWorld Market's "Reliquary for the Ashes of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses", and Trilby Minotaur's "Book Oasis."

Stanford University Virtual Archives

I attended an open house put on by Stanford University Virtual Archives, Second Life location. Upon arrival, one sees the campus, surrounded by palm trees. I used my mini map to find where people were gathered, walked over to the archives section, and found a helpful series of panels explaining how to use the virtual collections. The first one gives general information about the archives.

The next one tells the user specifically how to access a collection.

The archival boxes are displayed on tables.

Clicking on a box not only opens it, but also displays

a photo of the real box's contents. A nice touch.

Clicking again causes photos of the documents to appear above the boxes.

One can then zoom in on the images.

Clicking on a document gives the option of going to Stanford's website for additional information. Clicking on the blue box would have opened the website in the browser of my choice.

Another panel provides a list of collections available.

And another gives the user a landmark which one can use to return to the same spot. The option of joining Stanford's Library Group is also available. Groups generally keep members informed about changes, new services, and events.

Have a question? Leave it on the bulletin board. This feature could use a little more explanation on how to use it. It did not appear to be working when I was there.

A visitor list maker keeps statistics on the number of visitors.

Giving away freebies is part of the culture of Second Life. Here, one can get a free souvenir t-shirt:

And even a snack after a long day of virtual research.

Looking at a collection at Stanford Virtual Archives gives one the experience of being there. Some might prefer to have a list of links on a webpage, but others will appreciate the visual organization available here. It's easy to get a sense of how much material is available, which would be helpful in deciding if one needs to see it in real life. In Second Life, one could also arrange to meet one's co-authors, who live across the country or on a different continent, here. They could then look at a document together and use voice or text chat to discuss it. One could even discover someone else doing research on the same topic. Classmates doing an assignment could see each other and ask each other questions. This site could also be used in a classroom to show students how to do research in a university. And finally, it's simply more fun than just looking at a website. Here's a SLURL if you want to check it out for yourself:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stanford%20University%20Libraries/80/220/33