Warning: Blatant Self-Promotion Ahead!

Last summer, I taught a course via YouTube about games in libraries and made the lectures freely available to all (http://www.gamesinlibraries.org/course/?page_id=117).  From subsequent conversations, I know some of you used parts of this in your classes.  

I then took what I learned from that class and combined it with my research about games in libraries to write a book on the topic.  It's called "Everyone Plays at the Library," and was recently published by Information Today. It focuses on running gaming programs (as compared to building a circulating game collection).  It covers all types of analog and digital games, looks at games for children, teens, adults, seniors, and intergenerational groups, and is useful in school, public, or academic libraries (or anywhere someone is trying to facilitate a gaming experience for others).

The book guides readers to start with the goals of the library to decide goals for gaming programs, presents an original conceptual framework and five archetypes for gaming experiences, then uses those archetypes to discuss all game types and different patron demographic groups.  This allows the reader to select appropriate games based upon the library goals and demographic targets.  

The book then presents how to facilitate a gaming program, how to use partnerships to be more successful in planning and marketing, and how to assess the gaming programs back to the goals of the library in order to ensure the program has a justifiable place in the library.

As more library patrons see gaming as a key form of entertainment, libraries are using gaming to bring patrons in, to encourage social engagement between patrons, and to motivate them in exploring other types of library resources. If you teach a class where you'd like the students to learn to use gaming appropriately in their library services, then please take a look at this book.  

http://books.infotoday.com/books/Everyone-Plays-At-The-Library.shtml

End Blatant Self-Promotion


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Scott Nicholson
Associate Professor
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
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