ALA 2009: What Happens in Chicago…Will Be Talked About All Over the Internet

I spent the weekend (a long weekend; left this past Thursday, came home Sunday) at the 2009 national conference of the American Library Association.  I was there because of activities going on relevant to the grant I helped my library win.

I learned a great deal about games and gaming programs we can implement into our services.  At one meeting, we talked a great deal about “big games;” games that involve a series of activities that you do in real life.  If you’ve played a scavenger hunt, you’ve played a big game.  If you participated in either of the marketing campaigns for Halo 2 or Halo 3,  you’ve played a big game.

As with most things library, big games in libraries are intended to teach information literacy.  We did one at Wayne County Public a couple of years ago that has its roots in my best friend and I goofing off with the library video recorder after-hours (we were there for a program, I swear).  Since I had to justify this so as to keep my job, we turned the footage into a mystery in the tradition of The Blair Witch Project, with participants hunting down clues in our reference resources so as to solve the mystery of a library ghost.  It was fun; we didn’t get many participants, but we had a good time doing it.

I definitely want to do a big game again this year, maybe during Halloween.  I also want to incorporate the game “Werewolf,” which is a simple, no cost game that sounds like all kinds of fun.

In addition to all the networking and learning I did, I got to meet Neil Gaiman as well, which was so cool I can’t even describe it.

So I’ll be posting pics to my Flickr account, and I’ll be talking about all the cool things we do with games and gaming in the next year.  As a gamer on his way to becoming a full-fledged librarian (I’m only a Master’s degree away), I find it quite rewarding that I can use my job to explore my personal interests and vice-versa.  Perhaps this whole merging of games/gaming and libraries will eventually birth a video game in which you play as librarian on a whirlwind adventure off to solve some great mystery or recover some grand artifact, much in the fashion of Indiana Jones.  That would be pretty cool.

And So It Begins: My Dungeons and Dragons career is underway.

Today (or rather, I suppose at this hour, yesterday), I had my first Dungeons and Dragons session.  It was only me, my Dungeon Master (DM), a single dungeon tile from the starter game, the dice, and the rulebooks.  It was brief–a single encoutner with only two goblins–but my was it fun.

I’m proud to say that I used a character I made myself, and not a sample character from the starter game.  I spent a good three hours toiling over the Player’s Handbook, making first a rogue and then a ranger.  I chose Human as the class because I found it to be most versatile and have the best starting powers and abilities.  If my video game habits are anything to go by, I’m sure I’ll be making and playing several characters.  I also plan on doing some DM’ing as well, one day.

It felt good to actually use my hands and some real math skills to do things like swing a sword, as opposed to just pressing a button.  It felt more like I was really doing it, like I was actually there.  It also felt good to use the game to tell a story (as opposed to the game having a story through which I just kind of waded).  Just in case you’re curious, my character “Longstrides” Quinn McCree, a human orphan adopted by a kind dwarf, who had grown up amongst the stout and sturdy race (and thus shares their intense love of good food, good ale, and good company–as well as their ferocity in the fight) and was the friend of many elves who lived in a village near to his childhood home (and learned from them the bow and a love of nature), was given a job by his uncle, an innkeeper: go into the basement of the inn and get rid of whatever is scratching about down there.

Well, he did.  We made a few errors, but considering my DM only had three hours to prepare (while at work, no less) and we only had 30 minutes to play I think we did quite well.

Part of the fun (some might say that all of the fun) of D&D comes from the creative aspect: developing a backstory for your character, fleshing out his/her personality, speaking in character while at the table.  I’m inclined to agree.  I plan on writing out Longstrides’ story this weekend, what brought him to that inn where he meets his fellow adventurers.

There is another creative aspect as well, one born of invention.  I’m fine with spending money on rulebooks, power cards, dice, and a sweet DM screen.  However, considering that conceiveably we could be running multiple games at once (this whole thing is part of our Play Me a Story campaign at Wayne County Public Library), I’m not keen on buying dungeon tiles and miniatures for every character and monster.  So it seems that some hands-on projects making our own miniatures and tiles is in order.  Somehow, I think that will make it even more fun and personal (and a better teaching opportunity for our kids).

ALA/Verizon Libraries, Literacy, and Gaming Grant: A Winner Are We!

About a month ago, the American Library Association (ALA), in partnership with Verizon, named the winners of the Libraries, Literacy, and Gaming grant.  Out of 390 applicants, 10 libraries were chosen to receive $5,000 to create programs that will use games (video or otherwise) to help kids and teens learn how to use technology, think critically and creatively, and explore concepts in a hands-on manner.

I am proud to say that Wayne County Public Library, my employer, was one of the 10 libraries.  I am equally proud to say that I was the primary author of the grant proposal and will serve as Project Coordinator on our grant-funded project: Play Me a Story, a series of programs that use games as a springboard for creating narratives.

It’s going to be a great year for libraries as the ten grant winners implement their programs.  It’s also going to be a great year for gamers.  With libraries embracing games as a way to teach, the non-gaming public will (hopefully) begin to appreciate video games as something more than a recreational pursuit, and will see the educational value of good, old-fashioned play.

I want to thank the great team I have to work with at Wayne County Public Library (names withheld because I don’t have their permission and it’s way too late to call them) and the great experts giving us their advice and guidance throughout this initiative (WARNING–SHAMELESS NAME-CHECK: Beth Gallaway, Dale Lipschultz, Eli Neiburger, Scott Nicholson, plus a bunch of others).  I want to give a special wave to my friend and guild leader  Liz Danforth.

By the way, let me say again: 10 winners out of 390 applicants.  Pretty freakin’ mind-blowing.  It’s like going through Left 4 Dead on Expert without dying.