Game On—Beth Gallaway

“I've played video games since I was five,” says Beth Gallaway, who feels we can't “ignore something that 80 percent of the teen population is doing.” Gallaway wants to ensure that teens “get their fair share of library resources”; as a YALSA Serving the Underserved trainer, she believes she can “do more to spread the word about teen services than I could working in just one library.”

Gallaway started the LibGaming Google group after attending a Gaming in Libraries OCLC symposium in January 2005. Six months later, she set up the Game On blog after a list member asked for a “place to go for gaming news.” Several librarians now contribute to it.

Matt Gullett, of Bloomington Public Library, IL, calls Gallaway “the closest thing we have to an expert on the philosophical and practical aspects of getting gaming into libraries.” Her “gaming in libraries” workshops help participants get excited and learn about small-scale changes they can implement immediately.

Expanding into other media, Gallaway is working on a book for Neal-Schuman on gaming in libraries, tentatively set for 2007. She aims to “help librarians make a case for including new formats, give collection development guidance, and present model programs for several types of gaming.”

“Just think,” says Gallaway, “if we only embrace change, businesses would be paying us to be testing grounds for new products, and all these value-added services that people pay for, like Netflix and video game tournaments, would be available free or cheaper from us.”