Posts tagged ala
QR Codes and Libraries
3If 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
1THE 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
1SO 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
0FYI, 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
1Hey 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:
[poll id="2"]
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!
22Put 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!
8bitlibrary.com’s coverage of the 2010 ALA Presidential Election
1Today is the first day of voting for the American Library Association elections. Over the next few days we’ll feature interviews with a couple of candidates for various offices. Here’s 3 videos, recorded in full HD, taken Thursday March 11th at the ALA Presidential Candidates event organized by Trevor Dawes at the Princeton Public Library in NJ. Hopefully you can make a more informed voting decision after watching these videos, courtesy of 8bitlibrary.com! Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook. (apologies for the audio quality on these videos; we were in Princeton Public’s “Quiet Room” with a group of librarians and they REALLY WERE quiet! crank up the sound while you watch these and then turn it down again afterwords ;-) )
Sara Kelly Johns and Molly Raphael answer a question from Paterson NJ Public Library director Cindy Czesak: “What can ALA do to work better with local chapters?”
Sara Kelly Johns and Molly Raphael respond to East Brunswick NJ Public Library Director MaryEllen Firestone’s issues with the term “Advocacy”:
“Why should new librarians join ALA, especially when $$ is so tight?”
What technologies should ALA move toward to engage members?
2Sara Kelly Johns, who is running for ALA President, recently asked “What technologies should ALA move toward to engage members?”
I felt that 8bitlibrary.com, being a new-media-in-libraries kind of place, should have an official response!
I wrote back to her:
I can’t think of a more technologically engaged group of people than librarians. Because of that fact, this is a hard question to answer; it’s like asking to “look into the future”.That being said, hash tags are big on twitter. #edchat is a great one that I follow that is used (primarily) by K-12 educators, and chats go on every night on different topics. ALA would get a huge response if they had an official hashtag on twitter that they used to discuss set topics.
- What are your library’s best-practices for loanable gaming collections?
- How can gaming-in-libraries grow beyond the teen demographic?
- What are emerging medias that you see as relevant to the future of libraries?
- What can ALA do to support the growing gaming community?
- When developing your game collection, where do you go for reviews?
I understand that this is a “small” answer to a “big” question, but we should be proud, as a profession, that we are thinking so “big”!
What would engage you?








