your virtual library dance party
Posts tagged ala
Fighting Fire with Free Speech: Protest Book Burning on 9/11
Sep 9th
In what is emerging as a series on “why I became a librarian”, here’s my next blog post. I started out this series, not realizing at first what it would become, by talking about the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books Week Machinima contest. As it turned out, there was a short depiction of book burning, in a video game, included in that post:
Denying people the right to freedom of speech via the burning of media is a pretty anti-American act. Libraries are constantly facing struggles in making sure that information, even information some people want to censor, is available to all.
That brings us to my 2nd post on “why I became a librarian”, and I credited a group of musicians as influencing my future career. You know who is another group of musicians who influenced many people? The Beatles. (this post happens to come on the 1-year anniversary of the release of the first Beatles video game)
How did they deal with this American opposition to their British music? They took the true ideals of America, staging protests and standing up for what is right:
And that brings us back to this post. In the most un-American way possible to remember 9/11, a pastor in Florida will burn copies of the Qu’ran.
In Chicago, the ALA will be staging a protest to this act.
Fighting Fire with Free Speech: ALA Will Protest Book Burning with 9/11 Qur’an Reading
“The librarians of America will not stand by and let ignorance rule,” says ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. “For every would-be book burner, there are thousands of readers who will speak out for the freedom to peaceably assemble and read whatever they choose.”
Book burning is the most insidious form of book banning, and just as the American Library Association is preparing to celebrate the freedom to read during Banned Books Week, along comes one Rev. Terry Jones of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. The good reverend’s idea of world outreach is to commemorate the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 with a public burning of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book.The mind-boggling logic behind Jones’s plan has attracted the attention of Muslims and media around the world, and this morning, news sources reported that Gen. David Petraeus had personally pleaded with the reverend to restrain himself because of the potential for retaliatory violence against U.S. troops and citizens overseas that the book burning could provoke.
Meanwhile, the American Library Association and librarians across the country will move the Qur’an to the top of the Banned Books Week agenda. (Leading the way by modeling tolerance, an Oklahoma public library has been hosting an exhibit of artwork inspired by Muslim tradition.)
“Free people read freely,” says Barbara Jones, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. “That is a fundamental principle of the American Constitution and a basic mission of public libraries. We don’t burn books, we read them.”
Whether or not the Rev. Jones (who is no relation to ALA’s OIF director) proceeds with his plan, librarians and library advocates will assemble on the steps of the American Library Association headquarters in Chicago this Saturday at 1 p.m. for a public reading from the Qur’an to counteract the burning in Gainesville, and Banned Books Week will launch on September 25 with readings from the Qur’an.
Link to the ALA’s full post on the topic.
PLEASE HELP US HELP THE ALA SPREAD THE WORD BY TWEETING THIS LINK:
http://bit.ly/dgkn2t
This is why we became librarians, folks. Let’s stand up for Freedom of Speech.
Banned Books Week ’10 Machinima
Sep 2nd
As the video game medium grows in cultural importance, it is natural that game players will want to use these communication tools (are they REALLY games?) in creative ways. A good friend of 8bitlibrary.com, filmmaker Justin Strawhand, released a documentary in 2006 titled (appropriately) 8 bit. The trailer for the movie, interestingly enough, includes a shot of an artist who used a video game to depict “book burning”, see if you can catch it about 1 minute in:
The largest movement towards “using video games as to make art” is called Machinima. When you make a Machinima, you record video game characters as your “actors”, the video game is your “set”, and you are the director. Machinima is so popular that the PR campaign for the upcoming game Halo: Reach include humorous machinima commercials using Halo as the tool to make the commercials. Here’s an example of machinima:
And that brings us to the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom’s contest:
Banned Books Week 2010: Second Life Machinima Contest
Calling all filmmakers! As part of our celebration of Banned Books Week (BBW) in Second Life this year, we’re inviting everyone to take part in our Banned Books Week Machinima Contest. Machinima is filmmaking within a real-time, 3-D virtual environment like Second Life.
Your inspiration for your machinima entry should be “Think For Yourself and Let Others Do the Same,” the theme for this year’s BBW campaign. Submissions will be accepted between August 22 and September 25, 2010. Participants can enter as many videos as they’d like. The grand prize winner will receive 10,000 Lindens; a BBW 2010 T-shirt; and their video featured on the OIF Blog and in AL Direct. For more information about the contest, including rules and specifications, please click here. For further questions regarding the contest, please contact Tina Coleman (AKA, Kay Tairov in Second Life) via e-mail at ccoleman@ala.org.
You know 8bitlibrary.com will be participating! We will for sure be taking that little clip of a “video game book burning” as inspiration.
Please help us help the OIF spread the word about the contest by tweeting this link: http://bit.ly/deMZui
ALA10 Battledecks: JP Porcaro
Jul 2nd
Mad love to my 8BitLibrary brother JP for representing 8BitLibrary at the ALA 2010 Battledecks competition. I’m proud of you bub.
Want to see the rest of the videos? Click here to be taken to Librarian by Day and the rest of the videos!
QR Codes and Libraries
Jun 29th
If you’ve come to this page from the ALA Annual Conference QR Code Scavenger Hunt, WELCOME! & congratulations! Email me [jp@porcaro.info] the full “path” you took, from Cognotes to now, and we’ll be sure to send you a prize!
So let’s talk QR Codes in libraries. I’d love to hear what you’re doing with QR Codes in your libraries, so leave us a comment and we can discuss!
So it seems the buzz around QR codes in libraries takes a few forms. Some libraries are using codes that leads users to the OPAC data on a book or shelving area, depending on the physical location of the code. In the case of our ALA Conference hunt, we had the codes lead participants to physical locations, presentations, and digital destinations. Since the codes embed a tremendous among of text in a small box, the sky is the limit to what libraries can use these codes for. How about placing them around your community announcing a event (there’s a certain amount of excitement and mystery surrounding these codes!). Libraries can connect users to who interested in certain topics to different places in the library and beyond with these codes.
This is a new topic in libraries. We all need to work together on how far we go with this topic, so let’s the convo started right here in the comment box! Look to the right of the page, and you can even login using your facebook account to post comments here.
Go forth! – JP
Project Brand Yourself A Librarian
Jun 26th
THE TIME HAS COME.
BRAND YOURSELF A LIBRARIAN TODAY!
The 8BitLibrary team and YOU (well, if you want to) will be going to Jinx Proof Tattoos in Washington DC on SATURDAY JUNE 26TH at 4:30PM.
The bummer? They don’t take appointments. JP and myself will be getting tattoos and we’d love for you to be there to support us (one of us will cry, but who?) or get your own tattoo. Of course, there will be lots of pictures and video. Which leads me to this:
TAGS: Twitter: #librarytat8bit Flickr, Etc: librarytat8bit
AFTERPARTY!
Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 9:30pm
WHERE: RFD Washington
ADDRESS: 810 7th Street
If you support the project, please add this to your blog/wiki/facebook/myspace:
PROJECT BRAND YOURSELF A LIBRARIAN FLICKR GROUP!
OTHER PLACES TO GET TATTOOS IN DC
- Fatty’s Custom Tattoos PHONE: 202-452-0999
- Tattoo Paradise PHONE: 202-232-6699
- Off The Hook Tattoos PHONE: 202-581-2018
- DC Ink PHONE: 202-232-7711
ALA 2010 Badges
Jun 15th
SO are you going to the ALA 2010 Dance Party?!
BOOM, SHOW YOUR PRIDE!
Also, are you getting a tattoo or supporting the Project Brand Yourself a Librarian??
BOOM!
Thanks folks,
Signed, JP “the 8bit Brawler”
ALA Open Gaming Event & free stickers at ALA
Jun 8th
FYI, the largest gathering of gaming-in-libraries personalities from across the country will be at the ALA Open Gaming event on Friday, June 25th at 7:30pm in the Renaissance Ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel. You can RSVP on facebook here. It is an official ALA Annual Conference event hosted by the Games & Gaming Members Interest Group and sponsored by Neal-Schuman and Information Today.
The 8bit team will be in attendance handing out 8bitlibrary.com stickers and promoting the message that “games in libraries = good”. JP & Justin will, in fact, be handing out stickers everywhere we go, from Thursday night before conference to the very end of the conference on Tuesday, so track us down :)
So what if aren't the PRETTIEST bloggers in libraryland?! We're handing out free stickers!
Pokewalking at ALA Annual 2010
Jun 7th
Hey all,
Since I’ve spent so much time on SoulSilver, I have yet to get around to cracking open Pokemon HeartGold (despite buying it the day it came out). This set of Pokemon games were released with an accessory called a “Pokewalker“, which is like a combination of a pedometer and a Tamagotchi.
The Tamagotchi-like Pokewalker! Looks like Pikachu has taken 367 steps so far :)
It’s a fun device on a few levels. Firstly, in the game, you can take your Pokemon for “walks” and they accompany you in your travels. This is a more literal manifestation of that idea, in that you load a Pokemon into the Pokewalker, and as you literally walk, your steps are counted and your Poke walks with you :)
How to load Pokemon into the Pokewalker!
Second, it’s fun because there are times where you gotta take a bunch of steps before youe Poke can level up. These games came out right before Pax East 2010, and I always knew who was trying to add steps to a Pokewalker, because they’d be frantically running around for no reason. Funny!
Third (and this leads into my “project”), it is a highly visible device, so people can see you are “playing” Pokemon. As the ALA’s resident “King Pokemon Fanboy”, everyone will be SURE that I’m a true Pokefanatic now.
SO I’ve decided to spend some time playing HeartGold before the 2010 American Library Association Annual Conference, and the morning the conference kicks off, I’ll load it up with a Pokemon. I’ll carry the Pokewalker everywhere I go for the entire conference, and by the end, I’ll know how many steps I walked for the entire conference, and hopefully my Pokemon will have leveled up a few times. But I need your help:
Loading ...Here’s pics of the Pokes, in case you wanna see them:
Growlithe
Mudkip
Pichu
Primeape
Gyarados
Also, don’t forget that this Poke will be dancing with me at the ALA DANCE PARTY!
ALA 2010 Dance Party!
May 28th
Put on your glitter boots librarians, it’s time to dance and party like it’s 793.3
WHEN:
FRIDAY JUNE 25
WHERE:
APEX NIGHT CLUB
ADDRESS:
1415 22ND STREET NW, WASHINGTON DC
TIME:
10PM TILL THE SUN COMES UP
SOME HELPFUL LINKS:
LISTEN TO THE ALA 2010 DANCE PARTY MIX TO GET THOSE HIPS SHAKING.
Suggestions? Please post a comment and we’ll add it!
