Pandemic board game

“Modern board games offer a rich gaming experience with a strong focus on communication and personal interactions.”

ALA December 2008 “Games for learning”

Let’s not forget board games in the gaming and libraries movement!

Chris Harris (http://www.digitalreshift.org/)  was a speaker at April 2009 “Gaming Extravaganza Day”, a Central Jersey Regional Cooperative program.

He gave an interesting presentation on board games for libraries, and modern board games used in school and public libraries.  Chris used gaming research and he has linked the games he uses to the NY State curriculum standards, including math and social studies

Highlighted points from Chris:

Don’t buy “educational games”, but fun and complex games that use cooperation (rather than the greed based Monopoly type), and cross many different skills and subjects.

Hobby or game stores, or http://funagain.com stock them, and take purchase orders.

Much less $ into hardware and software than video gaming, all $ goes right into content.

Just print his “Board Games that Pwn” worksheet of game ideas-

http://digitalreshift.org/files/boardgamesthatpwn.pdf

HIVE 2 player, 20 mins, Age 6+
Looks simple, mimics classics like Go and Chess

IF WISHES WERE FISHES 2-5 players, 45 minutes, Age 8+
Catch fish, sell at the marke

If wishes were fishes- Board Game

PANDEMIC 2-4 players, 45 mins, Age 8+
Work to cure deadly diseases

More sources–

School Library System Game Library

Boardgameswithscott.com
Syracuse University -Associate Professor at the School of Information Studies. My research areas include the intersection of gaming and libraries and bibliomining, which is the measurement and evaluation of digital library services through bibliomining, or data mining for libraries