Games, Gamers, & Gaming

November 21, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

This blog entry is going to be moderately recursive, because I'm writing in Library Journal about another article in Library Journal. Consider it a mark of my belief that, if you read this blog but somehow missed the article, I feel you really need to correct that oversight.

M. Brandon Robbins has appeared here as a guest blogger before (and will again) because he knows video games, he knows libraries, and he has strong opinions about both. This is the time of year that every form of periodic media, from blogs to print magazines to television news, begins offering a "best of 2009" list.

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November 18, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

National Gaming Day @ Your Library was on Saturday. Did you miss it? Or did you participate?

If you took part, you were one of over 1600 libraries who signed up for National Gaming Day. You may have been one of the hundreds of libraries who received games from gam...Read More

November 14, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Today is the big day for hundreds of libraries around the country, all those who are participating in National Gaming Day @ Your Library. National Smash Bracket tournament with 43 libraries participating, Wiis overheating, board games in play, old, young, friends gathered and many people actively making new friends.

From Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, NC came this comment over Twitter, which I completely love: "Why do libraries need gaming? It puts ppl together, having fun, teaching, learning from & talking to ppl they'd never approach otherwise." Thank you, @TheCreide! You frame...Read More

November 11, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

This column is likely to draw some controversy although that is not really my intention. I spend a lot of time thinking about gaming and libraries, and today is Veterans’ Day in the United States. Today I cannot help but think about how we recognize and honor veterans for their service — and how that has a powerful relevance for gaming in libraries.

WORLD WAR II AND ME
My father was a naval officer in WWII, one of that generation who did not talk much about their experiences in the war. I do know that what he saw, what he did, had profound lingering eff...Read More

November 2, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Do you find people coming to your gaming events with questions? "What is going on? Why are you playing games in the library? I'm curious. I'm concerned. I don't understand."

If you've been doing gaming awhile, you probably have good answers already. However, you might not always have time to give a thorough explanation, or maybe people don't want to interrupt you to ask. (We never encounter that elsewhere in a library, do we?) My suggestion, assuming you don't already have something like this, is to make a one-sheet handout available to the curious, the...Read More