Posts tagged LibrarianJP
Project Brand Yourself a Librarian UPDATE
May 7th
It has been decided…
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
An advocacy letter to our readers
May 6th
Hey all,
Some of my favorite librarians, the ones with an eye on how information is communicated in our digital age, have told us to get on twitter. We are. They’ve told us to get on facebook, and you can now logon to 8bitlibrary.com with your facebook name. You can fan us on facebook. They’ve told us that the mobile web is growing, so we’ve set up 8bitlibrary.com to work beautifully on an Android OS or iPhone mobile browser.
What are we missing? We are trying to continue to move forward. What are you doing that we aren’t? Librarians in the 2010-2020 decade need to be asking that question: what are our users doing that we aren’t yet doing?
Libraries, for the sake of our very existence, need to stay relevant. Not only for advocacy efforts, but for our future place in the information landscape of those we serve. Sure, 8bitlibrary.com is about “gaming in schools and libraries”. But we what we really care about is keeping the library and educational (information) communities in the same place as those we serve.
So, what now?
Also, I would love those of you surfing this site via the mobile web to give us a shout-out, via our comment box, from your phone.
Signed,
JP & the whole 8bitlibrary.com team.
Pokemon running around the library!
Apr 15th
Hello, 8bitlibrarians! I’ve written so much about Pokemon in libraries that I have ignored how cool it is to see libraries actually using Pokemon! So here’s some fun Flickr finds:
Here are some youngins at a Pokemon card trade-off at Wilmette Public Library in Wilmette, Illinois.
Some older folks playing Pokemon at St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, Indiana.
Here is an eye catching awesome advertisement flyer for a Pokemon Rumble program at the Lester Public Library in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
Here we have a fun display of Pokemon manga at the Ridgedale Library in Monnetonka, Minnesota.
Some adults playing Pokemon Monopoly.
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Here we have Gaming-in-Libraries guru and author of Gamers…in the Library?! The Why, What, and How of Videogame Tournaments for All Ages, Eli Neiburger, running a Pokemon event. Pulled off the American Library Association Flickr account!
Is your school or library including Pokemon? Let me know! jp@porcaro.info
8BitLibrary.com: The Video Game
Apr 1st
COMING THIS SUMMER TO A NINTENDO WII NEAR YOU.
You’ve read the blog.
Now play the blog.
8BITLIBRARY.COM: THE VIDEO GAME features everything you want in a game. Action. Mystery. Puzzles. One on One Fighting. Co-Op Online Play. Blogging. All wrapped into one game.
Select your favorite 8BitLibrarian and take them on a journey of a lifetime. Help Librarian JP gain respect for Pokemon in the Education World! Join Justin The Librarian as he tattoos every librarian he can find! Feed the world with Andy Woodworth and his endless supply of Ben and Jerry’s! Join in on Laverne’s quest to be the #1 gaming and comic geek of all time! Erin needs your help…becoming a librarian! Join Craig as he just walks around in Second Life! The fun never stops in this one of kind video game for the Nintendo Wii.
Featuring 33 levels of non-stop entertainment, all ages will enjoy this title. Online, 4 player, or solo…8BITLIBRARY.COM: THE VIDEO GAME is a load of fun for you and your family!
This is your chance to life the dream that we all have: BECOME AN 8BITLIBRARIAN!
COMING SUMMER 2010 TO THE NINTENDO WII.
Gaming in Schools & Libraries Conference
Mar 31st
The “Women in Games” conference, canceled. TOTAL BUMMER. But that got me thinking…
While this idea is not original and ALA has hosted similar events, I still feel like the time is right for an annual Gaming in Libraries conference. There are so many issues to address: Collection Development, Literary elements of gaming, diversity issues, how gaming can be used as an advocacy tool, gaming & information literacy, gaming across the curriculum (and gaming as a teaching tool), gaming as way to boost circulating materials collections, gaming as a marketing tool, LoFi gaming (board & card games). There could also be lots of related technology elements: mobile phones & library service (make no mistake, foursquare is a game), implementing gaming into your Library 2.0 program (think Farmville), QR codes in schools & libraries (a scavenger hunt game), texting as a teaching tool. We could also expand it to Gaming in Schools & Libraries Conference, which would more than double the opportunities for both conference programs and attendance. The issues are there, and the thinkers/presenters are there. This would probably also be one of the more fun conferences around, because at its root, games are fun.
Here’s my questions: Is the time right? Would you attend? If your library didn’t sponsor your attendance, would you still be interested? How pumped would you be to play Xbox Live’s 1 v 100 with a roomful of teachers and librarians? (YOU KNOW we’d take top score)
Gaming/Teaching/Learning ideas…
Mar 23rd
The education system, in many cases, needs an overhaul. As I’ve posted before, James Paul Gee describes information hubs such as libraries and internet search engines as “competition” for schools, in that people can now learn exactly what they need to know, on demand when they need to know it. He goes on to say schools have never faced that “competition” before, and he calls for reform, some of which includes using gaming concepts as tools for learning.
But saying “we need video games in our classrooms” is one thing, actually implementing that is another. I’ve posted some lesson plan ideas that use Pokemon to teach, and Justin has posted some teaching ideas based around Super Mario (are we Nintendo fanboys much?!). Here’s two more ideas that you can use in the classroom to help the cause of “reforming education”:
This first link comes to me via Dennis Nagle, a fellow 2010 ALA Emerging Leader and one of my tweeps. It’s a school library that uses a Flash-animated game to teach the topic of “plagiarism”:
http://www.lycoming.edu/library/instruction/plagiarismgame.html
This second link circulated all over twitter via the #edtech hastag. Both librarians and teachers should follow this hashtag very closely, because it’s a resource for educators who use technology in the classroom. There are a small number of librarians who use the hashtag as well. It is a link to an article about how employers and teachers are using the gaming model of “leveling up” as an incentive. The basic idea is that tasks are assigned numbers. When a certain task is completed, points are earned and your “score” is raised (aka, you are “leveling up”). The most interesting part of this is that it is essentially an assessment model, yet the teachers in the article said it is exciting and motivating students. Think of other ways that students are assessed, and ask yourself if you could EVER describe the assessment as motivating? This can be a revolution in education resulting in large learning increases.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/169862,employers-look-to-gaming-to-motivate-staff.aspx
Feel free to pass on your gaming in education and libraries links to us. I would like to give a shout out to Sara Kelly Johns, who is a school librarian in NY. She’s running for ALA President, and the idea to put these links together into a post was sparked by a discussion she started on facebook about rethinking curriculum and instruction. Justin & I both personally endorse her for president because of her use of these modern communication tools, so she absolutely has 8bitlibrary.com‘s endorsement as well!
Pokemon in the Library? Controversy, Content & Literacy.
Mar 11th
I’ve written a basic intro to Pokemon for teachers and librarians, a more in depth look at gender roles and violence in the game, and lesson plan ideas using Pokemon as a tool to teach “habitats”. With the USA release of Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver coming on March 14th, the time is definitely right for another post.
Let’s start with the controversy. This controversy transcends Pokemon. The controversy is: “What does Pokemon have to do with reading!?” Or, on that larger scale, “What do video games have to do with literacy?!”. This is the stigma that libraries face not only with video games, but with many forms of media. This is why we have Banned Books Week; this why we are constant advocates for our own roles as librarians. What the controversy almost always entails is a single person (or group of people), without a proper understanding of the specific story’s context of the content they oppose, trying to censor material from all users of a public or school library. The outcome of most of these well-meaning censorship attempts is that the person who tried to censor the material reads it, understands the content in the context of the story, and actually likes the story and withdraws the censorship attempt. This is a very frequent occurrence and I think that Pokemon’s detractors would feel the same way if they spent time within the story, playing the game.
That brings us to content. As a follower of Marshal McCluhan, I always try to hip people to the fact that a distinction must be made between the content of media and the media itself. In this case, the media is “video games” (arguably, “handheld video games”), and the content is “Pokemon” (and more specifically, “The story contained within Pokemon HeartGold”, or whatever Pokemon game you are speaking about). If we understand this distinction between content and the media transmitting the content, we have already raised the legitimacy with which the “gaming-in-schools-and-libraries” discussion takes place.
And as that discussion is raised, it reaches the level that OTHER media has reached in schools and libraries: the literary value of gaming. I don’t need to rehash it completely, but games now have a plot, character development, thematic elements, and interactive narrative devices. This is why the Pokemon franchise can release Pokemon Silver in 2000, and release Pokemon SoulSilver in 2010: SoulSilver is a game with a similar plot and theme, retold using the new character development & narrative devices possible that technology allows for 10 years later. THIS is what Pokemon and gaming-in-general has to do with reading. 8bitlibrary’s Craig Anderson has written more on that subject in LibraryGuyCraig’s review of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Some library yougins at a "Pokemon Trade-off" I hosted last year
As a little addition to the article (I didn’t know where else to put this), I think the release of HeartGold and SoulSilver is an interesting one. As technology moves forward and more can be “done” with video games, Pokemon as a franchise has taken to “retelling” stories. HeartGold and SoulSilver and RETELLINGS of the stories contained within Pokemon Gold and Silver, which were released for play on the “inferior”-to-DS hardware system Gameboy Color. These new game are not really “remakes” of the old games; these are new games telling the same story. This reflects the true nature of video gaming: a modern storytelling medium. One of the library’s most important roles in the community is “storyteller”. From baby storytime lapsits to book discussion groups for seniors to archiving the local history of the community, libraries are a place to tell story. This is why Pokemon belongs there.
Gaming: All Libraries & All Ages, a free webinar presented by 8bitlibrary.com
Mar 4th
On Saturday, March 13th at 1:00pm EST (10am on the West Coast), 8bitlibrary.com will be presenting a weekend webinar free of charge to all of our loyal readers.
Gaming: All Libraries & All Ages
Gaming: All Libraries & All Ages will be a webinar highlighting collection development and advocacy issues that all libraries deal with when implementing (or planning to implement) video games into library collections and services.
Attendance will be fun and free. There will be an interactive chat box for the entire session, and the event will be presented as an un-conference collaboration.
All you have to do to attend is go to URL tinychat.com/8bitlibrary on March 13th at 1:00pm EST. We’ll have about 45 minutes of webinar time, with plenty of time after for chatting and collaborating. We hope you can be there.
An RSVP is not necessary, but there is a Facebook event which you can RSVP to here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10150110150540521
Also, don’t forget to add 8bitlibrary.com’s feed to your RSS Reader, and during the webinar be sure to follow the hashtag #8bitweb on Twitter.
PLEASE help us get the word out by tweeting about it / sharing on facebook / word of mouthing it / posting to listservs. In a time of shrinking budgets, free education for librarians is good!
Project Brand Yourself a Librarian: Update #1
Feb 10th
1. FOR THOSE THAT WILL BE PARTICIPATING
- Organizing one massive tattooing is sort of a logistical nightmare, so instead we’re opening it up to you. (See below for details)
- We’d like to keep track of how many folks are participating, so please reply to this post or email us at justinthelibrarian at gmail dot com so we can keep track!
- We want pictures! We wants details! The official hashtag for Project Brand Yourself a Librarian will be: TWITTER: #librarytat8bit and BLOGS/FLICKR/ETC: librarytat8bit
2. PLACES TO GET TATTOOS IN DC
- Jinx Proof Tattoos PHONE: 202-337-5469
- 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
These are just a sampling of the tattoo parlors in the DC area. If you’d like to go somewhere else, please feel free to do so. 8 Bit Library bloggers will only be at one of these tattoo parlors (see below).
3. DAYS TO GET TATTOOS DURING ALA ANNUAL
- What day works best for you? Well, that’s your day! Any days between June 24-29 will be good!
- Members of the 8BitLibrary team will be getting their tattoo on Saturday June 26th, 4pm at Jinx Proof Tattoo
- After our tattooing on Saturday June 26th, there will be a 8BitLibrary Party! PLACE and TIME: TBA!
4. DOES MY TATTOO HAVE TO BE LIBRARY RELATED?
- We’ve been getting this question a lot. While we are SUGGESTING that you get a library themed tattoo, you can choose to get any type of tattoo you’d like. A tattoo is a personal thing and we here at 8 Bit Library don’t want to tell you what to get on your body. Make yourself happy and get the tattoo you want!
If you have any other questions, please let me know. (Justin of 8 Bit Library)











