Hey all, wanted to share some updates with you about what our contributors are doing in libraries and beyond:
- Justin Hoenke was on Good Day Maine last week promoting the new Portland ME Public Library’s Teen library program. You can watch the video here.
- JP Porcaro just wrote an article for School Library Journal titled The Pokemon Generation which you you can read in its entirety here.
- Craig Anderson‘s 8bitlibrary.com article titled Why Nobody Plays Second Life has lead to a two-part guest post on the Library Journal “Games, Gamers & Gaming” blog. You can read Nobody Plays Second Life (part one) and Nobody Plays Second Life (part two) at those respective links.
- Today is 8bitlibrary.com contributor, 2010 Library Journal Mover & Shaker and creator of #andypoll Andy Woodworth‘s birthday. Happy Birthday, dude!
- We’d like to welcome some new contributors: Eli Neiburger, author of Gamers…in the Library?! The Why, What, and How of Videogame Tournaments for All Ages, High School Librarian Buffy Hamilton, of the Unquiet Library, Brandon Robbins, who has already posted lots of great video game reviews here on the 8bitlibrary, Harvard University librarian Tom Bruno (aka @oodja on twitter), and Stevens Institute of Technology librarian Valerie Forrestal. Welcome to everyone and glad to have you aboard.
- RedheadFangirl Laverne Mann got to meet graphic novel superstar writers the Luna Brothers. How cool is that?!
Hope everyone has a fun week! JP
I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about how to start up a circulating video game collection that I thought it was time to really dive into the topic here on 8BitLibrary. What I’d really like is for this post to develop and be a collaborative document. Please, share your stories with us! We’ll use your comments, suggestions, fails, etc in a future blog post.
1. Start small
You don’t have to go for broke with your new collection. I recommend starting small. Focus on one branch (preferably the main library in your system) and go from there. By keeping things small at the start, you will understand how your collection is going to be used and how it can grow on a larger scale.
2. Know your audience
The best way to get in touch with the people you will be buying these games for is to have a gaming program at your library for a few months. Over those few months, you’ll get an idea of what types of games will work at your library. Feel free to ask the people attending these programs what they think. Chances are, they’ll be your best resource for creating a unique and well used video game library.
3. Develop a plan for each system
Once you know your audience, the next step is to plan out where you want to take each collection. While they’re all share the name video games, each system has its own audience. The XBox360 is known as the system for more hardcore gamers who really want to dive into the world their games offer. The Nintendo Wii has more casual gamers and laid back games. I myself am still confused as to who has a Playstation 3, and I think everyone pretty much has a Playstation 2 somewhere. Can you rely on these “audience types” all the time. No. But they sure do help when you’re starting out.
“Five Mistakes We’re Making” by Liz Danforth @ Library Journal
This highly inspiring article comes to us from Liz Danforth at Library Journal. Great stuff here. I’m feeling particulary inspired by number five on her list “WE DON’T BROADEN THE EXPERIENCE”
One simple thing that I’ve found that really works is to provide users at a gaming program with a collection of strategy guides. When they’re not playing, they’ll be reading and analyzing strategies for a game. Make sure you advertise your gaming strategy guides collection well and the users will flock to it. This pulls them into the library and will introduce them to an even bigger world of things for them to discover…
Here it is, Game Informer magazine’s top 200 video games of all time (as of 2009, obviously…)
http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=105214
