gaming

The Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) in North Carolina has so many innovative programs and initiatives that I could probably write a book about it. I'll spare you that, however, and just discuss the coolest thing that I learned about from my talk with Kelly Czarnecki at PLCMC.

If you've read any articles about gaming, or you've sponsored tournaments at your library, or you've attended a library conference lately, you've likely heard the buzz around gaming in libraries. I LOVE watching librarians giggling and having fun playing Rock Band during conference down-times. At the recent ARSL conference, a certain someone was heard belting out classics while her colleagues accompanied her on drums and guitar (who knew that Margaret Miles--also a member of our steering committee--was such a rocker?).

This was a question that Micheal Krasny, host of the Forum on NPR's affiliate in San Franciso asked of his guests yesterday in an hour-long program called "The Future of Libraries." Al Escoffier, City Librarian for the Burlingame Public Library, Jane Light, Director of the San Jose Library, Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association, and Martin Gomez, President of the Urban Libraries Council were on the program.

A couple stories have captured my attention recently since Chris' last post on gaming...

First off, the Verizon Foundation announced recently that they made a grant to ALA for a research effort to determine the link between gaming, library attendance, and literacy in libraries. Included in this grant is a "gaming model for the nation's 9,000 public libraries" developed by "experts"--I'm curious to learn what this will look like!

Thanks again to Kieran Hixon and Jesse Weaver of the John C. Fremont Public Library. They gave a great presentation this morning on their home-grown, open source PC Reservation program (recordings and information about upcoming webinars can be found on the WebJunction site) . Instead of recapping the webinar, I'd like to share a quote from our recent interview with Kieran. She tells a great story here about the impact that teen gaming events have had on her small-town library. She started these tournaments with equipment she already had in the library and donations from the community. So it didn't put a big strain on the budget.

We hear about how libraries are using--or not using--games in their libraries all the time. Some offer games, others don't--it's a big topic to chew on!

Just the other day, Beth McNeer from Allendale-Hampton-Jasper Regional Library from South Carolina shared her worries around kids disrupting other patrons while playing games. To mitigate this concern, her library is thinking of starting a game night:

Searching for a way to get the attention of your younger patrons? Think that gaming has no place in a library? Think again. Several libraries in Minnesota are providing teens with entertaining, and sometimes educational, games to keep them coming back.

What's educational, fun, and found in most libraries? Computer games!

Faye Hover from Smith-Welch Memorial Library in Hearne, Texas is using computer games to educate her younger patrons, and they don't even know it. "When the kids were here, they didn't have anything to do, and I thought, 'well, if I get a game computer and put some interesting games and trick them into thinking they're having fun, when they're really learning something, well this will be a good thing.'"