Library Meeting 1/18/2010, 10 am slt-12 noon slt - Summary
Held at: El Partel Plaza and Retail Center, Al Andalus Alhambra
Present: muhammedyussif Wikinger, Imotali Antiesse, Rose Springvale, Fern Leissa, Andreu Donat, Sonja Strom, Jeroma Wycliffe, Naftali Torok, Arias Ahren, Wasp Thor, Pip Torok, Tor Karlsvalt, hannah Palletier
Purpose of the meeting: Preview Andreu’s presentation on Al-Andalus, discuss names for the library, form a group, and review some of the ideas people have for collections, events, etc., including volunteers
Library Group Beginnings: Fern Leissa has agreed to serve as head librarian. Andreu and Imotali will serve as assistant librarians. Andreu has been championing this library project for almost 2 years. Other volunteers are welcome.
New Library Building: The old library building, built by Xinoxi and currently on Al-Garnata is being abandoned. The library is moving to the palaces at El Partel Plaza.
Library Name: Andreu submitted a note card with 3 name proposals for the new library building: Al-Maktaba (Arabic word for the library) , Al-Qantara ( the bridge) and Al-Masdar (the source). Discussion followed, about Al-Maktaba and Al-Qantara as separate, distinct names and together as one name. There was also some discussion suggesting EL Partel Plaza Library, El Partel Library, El Partel Plaza al Maktaba and Al-Andalus Library as other possibilities. At the end of the discussion, the group voted on “Al Qantara” as the new library name. All votes were yes, with one abstention.
Library Group: Rose formed a sl group for the library. She will send out group invites to everyone in attendance. The group charter is: Al-Andalus was a major center for learning and an important economic center in both the Mediterranean basin and the Islamic world; Scholars from all over the world came to study in its famous libraries. The Al Qantara, or Bridge, library is named to express the bridges that understanding and knowledge offer to different cultures, and our wish to continue to build them.
Slide Presentation on the Main Contributions of Al-Andalus: Andreu listed and grouped the different areas of knowledge passed from many different cultures to western countries, much coming through Al-Andalus. Al-Andalus functioned as a cultural bridge. Knowledge transmitted to the west included the number 0, the decimal system, advances in medicine and astronomy, classical philosophy and many others. Tulips, for example passed to Central Europe from Al-Andalus. There were other routes of cultural transmission but Al-Andalus was by far one of the biggest and yet one of the least known to people today.
Andreu also mentioned the intercultural and religious dialogue represented by Al-Andalus. Like many societies today, Al-Andalus was not a paradise, but compared to most contemporary societies and even many of Al-Andalus’ successive societies, it was a very tolerant society, with culture and knowledge at its heart.
Andreu noted that recently, interest in Al-Andalus has increased. Imotali noted that there are currently lots of videos on Al-Andalus. Sonja noted that periods of war are often more interesting to historians than periods of cooperation.
Suggestions on Library Content/Programs: Andreu said there were very lovely manuscripts available. Fern has Qur’an pages she would like to put in a book and also exhibit in the library. Tor, Pip and Fern discussed whether or not scrolls would be appropriate for the library collection. Pip thought using scrolls in sl might be impractical.
Naftali suggested it must be possible to connect to university libraries with facsimiles of old books, music and manuscripts from the period. Andreu agreed that it would be good to involve other cultural (rl?) institutions.
Naftali also pointed out that there are also interesting music compositions from this time. Andreu, Pip and Sonja all agreed that this was an interesting area to consider. Rose agreed that the musical side of Al Andalus was something worth exploring but reminded everyone that music was one of the reasons we have Sacromonte and that the library cannot cover everything.
Practical Prim Problems: Rose said it would be very unlikely to find 2000 prims to use for library contents. This is the number recommended by Alliance Library staff, based on a typical 25/75 (building/contents) ratio. We might be able to recapture some prims. Using textures for things like bookcases, should also help. (Texturing bookcases was also used by Xinoxi in the old library building). Imotali showed the group an example of a textured bookcase from the Caledon Library. She also suggested using something like the bookcase texture on the Marino bookcase behind the mosque.
Book making: Fern mentioned that she and Imotali had been talking about making ThinC books for the library. Rose mentioned the hippo publishing edition that appears to get around the permission issues of the ThinC books. [Most of the sl libraries try to use Open Source software whenever possible, with full permissions]. Rose gave Fern a hippoBOOK carton
Rose suggested bookmaking lessons/training. May want to schedule it for a couple of different times so more people can come. Naftali, Tor, Andreu, Pip, Fern and Jeroma were all interested in training. Rose said she would check on getting somebody to teach it. Xinoxi held a session before, or maybe Onyx or JJ or Serina, if she is still around.
Next Meeting: Scheduled for Jan 25, 2010; Fern asked everyone to think more about what they wanted to see in the library. Tor Karlsvalt suggested that we should have landmarks of other sims, perhaps coordinating with those sims. Tor knows someone at another Islamic sim. Rose also mentioned that we have many active Muslims in our AA sim (Breathe Swindlehurst has been in programs here).
Recording meetings: Those still around at the end of the meeting discussed how the meetings should be recorded; minutes or transcripts. Nearly everyone agreed that minutes or some sort of summary would be nice, so minutes for this meeting are being posted to the forum. No agreement was reached on whether or not we want to have transcripts of the meeting. Reasons for doing transcriptions are that they are detailed and easy to do; some people won’t be able to make all or most of the library meetings but would like to follow what develops; that it is a public meeting. Reasons for not doing a transcript included, they are a lot to read; many people, specifically educators have objected to their use; some people won’t speak up if the meeting chat is recorded; and information can easily be cut and pasted out of context.
A blogger appears: Rober1236Jua appeared a few minutes before the meeting was adjourned. He wanted to blog the event but must people were already leaving so Rober decided to just take some pictures. Jeroma gave out the URL for Rober’s blog: [url]http://thegreatslexpedition.blogspot.com
