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Posts tagged programming
Pokemon running around the library!
12 years ago
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.
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
Zombies @ your library
62 years ago
In case you haven’t noticed, zombies are so hot right now. In movies and books, in flash mobs and on college campuses, even in social networking, they’re everywhere — shouldn’t they be @ your library, too? Gaming is a great way to bring them there!
Zombies have an incredibly rich history in video games, reaching all the way back to Zombie Zombie on the ZX Spectrum in 1984. Some of today’s hottest titles are zombie related, like Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, the Resident Evil series, the House of the Dead series, Dead Rising and its sequel, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse – Nazi zombies even make an appearance in Call of Duty: World at War. Zombies show up in other types of games as well – they appear in Magic: The Gathering, D&D, and even in board games.
As I’ve discussed before, video games are a great Reader’s Advisory tool – why not use a zombie gaming night to introduce patrons to other zombie-themed materials they might enjoy? Maybe someone who’s never picked up a graphic novel could be enticed by a copy of The Walking Dead. A DVD display could spotlight the original Romero archetypes, feature some campy classics and introduce a few exciting new takes on the genre. Zombies are running rampant in fiction these days – I’m sure you already have a few copies of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on hand – so you could assemble a veritable smorgasbord of undead delights (my favorites are those by Max Brooks, Z.A. Recht and Jonathan Maberry). Zombie fiction is an excellent gateway to the larger world of horror writing, so you might want to add a few non-zombie titles as well to see if you can pique some interest.
The undead are everywhere these days — don’t miss the opportunity to bring them into the library as well!
Gaming in Schools & Libraries Conference
10The “Women in Games” conference, canceled. TOTAL BUMMER. But that got me thinking…
click for the story on the cancellation...
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 and Advocacy
02 years ago
Advocacy is a word thrown around so often in libraries that we can forget what it means. Advocacy, to me, means advocating for meaningful library services and public support of libraries.
Gaming can be an effective tool for libraries to use in their advocacy efforts. Gaming is a literary endeavor. Gaming connects people. Gaming connects different media collections together. Gaming can be used to teach. Gaming can be used for fun. But what is really important is that everyone is gaming. In that sense, libraries can reach some of the widest audiences of users by including games both in their collections and program offerings.
And when the time comes for libraries to need support from public (in times of budget cuts, etc.), libraries with users who really vocally love the place will have strong advocates. When we are building our core of users who will support us, can libraries afford not to be incorporating game programs & collections?
On board
62 years ago
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
Review: Rock Band 2 (360)
02 years ago
What? The Rock Band franchise was created by Harmonix, the same development team that created Karaoke Revolution and a little franchise called Guitar Hero. Rock Band was their successful attempt to merge those two music game concepts, and Rock Band 2 is (as of writing) the BEST music game for any console.
Why? Between the 84 songs on the disk, the 20 free downloadable songs, the ability to import songs from Rock Band 1 and Lego Rock Band, over 1,000 songs available as DLC, and the Rock Band Network (with the possibility for a gigantic increase in song availability), I’ve got 100s of songs to choose from on my hard drive. Two players play controllers shaped like guitars, one player plays a drum controller (just like you’d play regular drums), and one player gets to sing along. My kids and my parents play. When I have parties, we play. I play alone. I can play with my friends online. I compete in score competitions online (and can view my leaderboard scores from a web browser). This is the game that librarians play at gaming sessions in conferences. This is one of the best games for library programs. If you purchase it for a collection, it will be loaned constantly.
Who? It’s hard to find a game that you can say is for everyone. Wii Sports is one of those. This is the other one. Because of the GIGANTIC library of songs, you are bound to find a song you like. Because of the scalable levels of difficulty, anyone can pick it up and jam. And probably the most important dimension of this game, the one that brings it from a great party game to the BEST party game, is the microphone. You don’t need to ever have played a video game before to jump right into the Rock Band 2 experience, you just need to be able to sing karaoke. Also, because the game scales up to VERY difficult, hardcore gamers can really get depth and playability out of this title (which is usually a choice that has to be made: good party game or good hardcore game? this one is both).
Rock Band 2 is the game I’ve spent the most time playing since I purchased my 360. It is fun, challenging, and the songs are “great jam”. And just when you think you’ve gotten bored with the game, they release more songs. Besides all the game content, there is an information community built around the game over at rockband.com. You can link your in-game band to your rockband.com profile, link your profile to your facebook account, and you are immediately involved in the Rock Band community. Librarians could take a tip from them and how successful they are at building communities around non-traditional media forms.
Not only should you buy this game for your library, you should buy it for yourself.
IRL: Gaming at the Newport Beach Public Library
02 years ago
Reference Librarian Allen Kesinger is such an avid gamer, he has a Vault-Tec bobble head keeping watch over his cubicle. That alone was enough to make him my personal hero, but there’s another, even more important reason why I admire him: Kesinger brought gaming to the Newport Beach Public Library.
In early 2009, Kesinger went to his library’s board with a proposal for a pilot program to add games to the library’s collection. He had done his homework, checking out what other libraries were doing with gaming, and he made his case: gaming has a wide audience, and bringing games to the library would add value for patrons. Gaming’s not just for kids anymore – just ask Jack Davis, the 86 year old man who rolled 40 perfect games in Wii bowling.
The board gave Kesinger a $1,500 budget to get started, which he used to purchase 40 games for the top 3 platforms: PS3, Xbox360 and Wii. As the games could only be rented by patrons 18 and over, Kesinger included popular rated M games, basing his first purchases on his own personal collection. The games were an immediate hit, and now that the program has proven itself, the board has approved a budget increase, which Kesinger plans to invest mostly in Wii games, the library’s most popular titles.
In addition to lending games, the NBPL has hosted several gaming events. They held their first event in March of 2009 in honor of Teen Tech Week, and have since held another “study break” game night. Their next event will be an intergenerational game night, a “bring your parents” evening where old school games will have a place of honor right beside the newer titles.
Kesinger has big dreams for gaming at the NBPL. He hopes to grow the collection enough to earn its own shelf space, eventually adding PC and Nintendo DS games, and someday even making DS consoles available for check-out on weekends. He even imagines LAN parties on the library’s 30 internet access computers, with dozens of gamers settling in for an evening of WoW, Call of Duty or Left 4 Dead. I hope he makes it happen – because when he does, I will be there!
Here are a few of Kesinger’s tips for librarians looking to start a gaming program at their library:
- Talk to your staff – you might find some “closet” gamers who would be interested in helping and could make some great suggestions.
- Use online resources to build your proposal and your collection. The ESA’s website is a great source for statistics on gamers, which can be useful in your pitch to the powers that be. Websites like GameRankings.com can help you figure out what’s popular when the time comes to buy your first games.
- From a collection development standpoint, don’t be afraid to reach out to adult gamers with rated M titles – Kesinger has had great success with them.
- Use comment cards to gauge patrons’ reactions to your game program! Kesinger has had only positive feedback – and requests for more games!—and the comments help him continue to make his case to grow the program.
Allen Kesinger is a Reference Librarian at the Newport Beach Public Library, an SJSU MLIS grad, and an all-around standup guy. You can contact him at akesinger@newportbeach.ca.gov. Thanks so much, Allen!
Do you know a library or librarian doing awesome stuff with gaming IRL? Let us know and we’ll spotlight them here on 8bitlibrary.com!