Tag Archives: gaming

Programs

ALA International Games Week Registration is open for 2017!

“Transform your library by participating in International Games Week. This event is an annual celebration of games, play, libraries, and learning that is free for libraries!

This event has only one requirement – you have to have some sort of game-related activity in or around your library, on or around the official dates, October 29th through November 4th. That’s it! The games can be videogames on a library console, tabletop games, social games, party games – whatever you think will work for your individual library and community.

To register, fill out the form at http://bit.ly/IGW2017Register and tell us a bit about your library.

Subscribe to our website, http://games.ala.org, to get weekly updates on a range of topics to help inspire ideas, discussion, and of course learning around games and play. Registrants will also have access to promotional materials to help promote the day.”

 

Sian Brannon, Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Collection Management, UNT Libraries

Editor, Public Services Quarterly

sian.brannon@unt.edu

Programs

Suggestions needed for D&D Programs!

File:Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition logo.svg

From a library listserve – if you have any other suggestions can be posted to comments!

“A coworker of mine (who is not a programmer) wants to host a recurring D&D program for people to come and play on a drop-in basis. I have zero experience with this game, as I don’t play, and I’m curious to know if anyone else has hosted D&D programs on a recurring basis? Is it more efficient to host it often or more like once a month? I’m not sure how often to host this program, and I’m concerned because typically, recurring program series haven’t done well at our library.

Any advice/tips would be welcome!”

Continue reading Suggestions needed for D&D Programs! →

Communication, Resources

Library suggestions for game night

Video Game Barnstar Hires
A library person is looking for suggestions for video games to play in the library for game night. We are sharing the initial question, and the responses. Check them out to see if you can use them in your library. And if you have other suggestions, share them in the comments so we can all try new things!

“We used to have Call of Duty gaming nights to get kids in to play together on our PCs. We were using Call of Duty 1 which worked as it was not particularly over the top graphic.

This version is super old and now fails on our PCs. Do you all have any suggestions on similar group play games that aren’t intensely graphic?  These game nights happen out in the open in a room shared with all age ranges so it can’t be too too.”

Continue reading Library suggestions for game night →

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Attention game enthusiasts & educators

PuzzleMove over Minecraft enthusiasts, you’ve got some stiff competition! Did you hear about the first ever Tech Tool Tourney that KQED MindShift and Common Sense Graphite recently hosted? 32 games were selected because of their outstanding quality and educational value. The purpose of this tourney was to introduce game enthusiasts and educators to new games, then give them three days to vote for their favorites. Sounds like some craziness happened during voting, so two winners were declared: Construct 2 and Kerbal Space Program!

The 32 games were grouped; eight to each of the following categories:
– Social & Emotion Learning
– School Subjects
– Critical Thinking
– Creativity-Game Making

To get the list of games, click here and scroll down.

Did you know? You can find teacher reviews for these games, along with thousands of others, at Graphite.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/lg3todg, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Game-Based Makerspaces

Image by Sergey Galyonkin. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Sergey Galyonkin. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Gaming programs are growing in some libraries across the United States.  In ALA’s blog The Scoop, Brian Mayer wrote an article detailing how he facilitated game creation, with students, using classroom curriculum.  Mayer is a gaming and library technology specialist at the Genesee Valley (N.Y.) Educational Partnership. When creating this game-based type of makerspace, he focuses on “…demonstrating concept understanding and mastery throughout the design process and in the finished product.” This work is accomplished in collaboration with classroom teachers and the school librarians.  Find out more about how Mayer engages and empowers youth in Creating Game-Based Makerspaces, (July 2013.)

Note:  Interested in incorporating games in your learning process?  Read the related article, How to Gamify Your Classroom (October 2013), in which the author decodes how you can win students over in five simple levels.