Library Technology Reports Respond to Your Library’s Digital Dilemmas Eight times per year, Library Technology Reports (LTR) provides library professionals with insightful elucidation, covering the technology and technological issues the library world grapples with on a daily basis in the information age. Library Technology Reports 2008, Vol. 44 January 44:1 February/ March 44:2 April 44:3
May/June 44:4 July 44:5 August/ September 44:6 October 44:7 November/ December 44:8
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Expert Guides to Library Systems and Services a publishing unit of the American Library Association
“Changing the Way We Work” by Michelle Boule, Social Sciences Librarian, University of Houston, Houston, TX “The Preservation of Digital Materials” by Priscilla Caplan, Assistant Director for Digital Library Services, Florida Center for Library Automation, Gainesville, FL “Gaming and Libraries Update: Broadening the Intersections” by Jenny Levine, Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, American Library Association, Chicago, IL “Drupal in Libraries” by Christopher Harris, Coordinator, School Library System, Genesee Valley BOCES, Le Roy, NY and Andy Austin, Library Technologies Specialist, Genesee Valley BOCES, Le Roy, NY “Libraries and the Mobile Web” by Ellyssa Kroski, Reference Librarian, Columbia University, New York, NY “WorldCat Local at the University of Washington” by Jennifer Ward, Steve Shadle, and Pam Mofjeld, University of Washington Libraries “Libraries on the MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environments)” by Thomas A. Peters, Principal, TAP Information Services, Blue Springs, MO “Open-Source Integrated Library Systems” by Marshall Breeding, Director for Innovative Technologies and Research, Vanderbilt University Library, Nashville, TN
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Gaming & Libraries Update: Broadening the Intersections by Jenny Levine
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Expert Guides to Library Systems and Services
Gaming and Libraries Update: Broadening the Intersections Jenny Levine
Copyright © 2008 American Library Association All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
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Library Technology Reports (ISSN 0024-2586) is published eight times a year by ALA TechSource, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. ALA TechSource, a unit of the publishing department of the American Library Association, is the primary source of practical information on library systems, equipment, and supplies, as well as information on evolving technologies that bear on the development of the library profession and the provision of library services. Periodicals postage is pending at Chicago, IL, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Library Technology Reports, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.
Jenny Levine is the Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide for the American Library Association’s Information Technology and Publishing departments. She earned her MLIS from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign in 1992 and has been an eminent technologytraining evangelist for librarians during her career. In 2003, she was named one of Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers, the publication’s homage to “the people shaping the future of libraries,” published every March. “Levine has one simple goal,” notes the March 15, 2003, Library Journal profile, “to help us librarians become as technologically adept as our users are so that we can deliver services to them when and where they wish to use them and in their preferred medium and platform.” Levine is a keen advocate for gaming services and libraries, as she is a gamer and has witnessed, through personal observation and study, how gaming services can help members of several generations (particularly younger users) feel connected to the library. “Gaming,” she concludes, “provides a wealth of service intersections for libraries today and for the libraries of the future. And that future is all about opportunities and weaving together threads, both old and new.” Since writing a 2006 LTR on this topic, she has organized the 2007 ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, helped coordinate ALA’s first National Gaming in Libraries Day, and is already working on the next gaming and libraries symposium. Levine also writes about gaming and libraries on a regular basis on her popular blog, The Shifted Librarian, which can be found at theshiftedlibrarian.com. She began the first librarian blog in 1995, The Librarians’ Site du Jour, which can still be accessed at http://jennyscybrary.lishost.org/sitejour.html.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1—Introduction A Look Back A Look Forward Notes
5 5 6 6
Chapter 2—Broadening Our Definition of Gaming: Tabletop Games
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Case Study 1, by Scott Nicholson Modern Board Games: It’s Not a Monopoly Anymore How Modern Board Games are Different Challenges and Suggestions Conclusion Case Study 2, by Christopher Harris Talking Points Notes
8 8 9 9 9 10 11 11
Chapter 3—Broadening Our Definition of Gaming: Big Games Case Study 3, Dewey Dare, by Eli Neiburger Talking Points Notes
Chapter 4—Broadening the Audience for Gaming in Libraries Case Study 4, by Martin D. House and Mark E. Engelbrecht Introduction Planning Logistics Data Collection & Results Anecdotal Information Conclusion Case Study 5, by Allan M. Kleiman Talking Points Notes
Chapter 5—Broadening Gaming Services in Libraries Case Study 6 Case Study 7 Case Study 8 Case Study 9, by Paul Waelchli What Is That Value? Information Literacy with Gaming Strategies Talking Points Notes
Chapter 6—Looking to the Future New Initiatives Notes
12 13 16 16
17 17 17 18 18 18 19 19 20 23 23
24 24 26 29 31 31 33 34 34
35 35 37
Table of Contents, continued
Appendix A—Board Game Recommendations
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Appendix B—Contact Information for Case Studies
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Appendix C—Rules for Dewey Dare
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Chapter X 1
Introduction
A Look Back
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We’ve found how beneficial it can be to take the content our users would normally consume individually, at home, and make a social event out of that consumption. We’re adding value. Sure, Dad could check out and take home Who Took My Hairy Toe? and read it at bedtime, and that’s great, but it’s even better when parent and child can come to the library together, hear Shutta Crum read it her way, and laugh, smile, and be scared along with other parents and children. The added value is the quality of the storyteller,
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n its December wrap-up of the “Top 10 Library Stories of 2007,” American Libraries magazine cited gaming because “it was the year gaming caught the imagination of libraries.”1 And what an amazing year it was. In an uncharacteristically (for our profession) viral and rapid way, videogame services in libraries broke through the niche, cult-like status that had relegated them to something only geeky nerds did at home in the basement. As videogaming went mainstream in the United States with the introduction of new games and consoles that appeal to a much broader audience, so, too, did it gain traction in all types of libraries. In many places, the immediate reaction to “videogames and libraries” is no longer an automatic, “No way,” but rather a, “Let’s talk about it—this might have some value for us.” In a year that saw two highprofile attempted library closure cases (Jackson County, Oregon, and the Environmental Protection Agency) and increased funding pressures across the country, video games overwhelmingly generated positive reviews, reactions, and support in many communities. In this follow-up to my 2006 volume on this subject, we can acknowledge this success but take a step back and examine a more holistic view of gaming in libraries, because despite the emergence of videogames in libraries over the last three years, gaming in libraries in general is not new at all. Historically, libraries have provided services that were either directly or tangentially related to gaming. For example, chess clubs have met in libraries for decades. Many libraries have board-game collections available for in-house use or for circulation. Most weekday afternoons, kids take over public library computers to play Runescape
and other online games with their friends. And then there is the summer reading program public libraries offer every year. As Liz Lawley noted in her closing keynote speech at the 2006 Internet Librarian conference, what is summer reading other than a giant game to get kids to read? “It’s really a game for kids—it has rules, guidelines, a goal, and prizes—and it works for more than just kids.”2 In 2007, Eli Neiburger, Associate Director of Information Technology and Product Development at the Ann Arbor District Library, published the first full book on this subject.3 Gamers . . . in the Library?! has found a wide audience within the profession because it explains why gaming is a legitimate library service on its own and is not just a loss leader to get kids in the door. It details how to run gaming tournaments on any budget and offers a wealth of advice and recommendations for gamers and nongamers alike. In the first chapter, titled “This Is a Library, Not an Arcade and Other Entirely Artificial Distinctions,” Neiburger compares offering social gameplay to storytime (in fact, the draft subtitle of the book was “Just Like Storytime, Only Louder and Smellier”).
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the distinct, engrossing experience, and the social interaction for kids and parents that athome consumption of content does not provide. . . . Hosting a videogame tournament at your library is just like storytime. You’re taking content that players would normally consume at home . . . , adding distinct value to the experience, and building a highly social event out of it. This is as traditional as library programs get. It’s what we do!4
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A Look Forward
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In this issue, we’ll spend less time looking at the gaming world outside the profession in order to focus on the more unique services libraries have begun implementing. The previous issue was intentionally a broad overview to help introduce a relatively new topic and stimulate discussion within libraries. Similarly, this volume is not meant to be an academic treatise; rather, it is a view from the ground level up for—and for the most part by—practit ioners who want to explore the wider range of intersections with gaming in our profession. While more and more libraries of all types are offering open play and tournaments for videogames, others are returning to more traditional roots of gaming services in libraries, and an ambitious group of librarians pioneers new services with new audiences. As we will see in the next chapter (and indeed throughout this volume), gaming services are not new at all in libraries, and there are many ways to incorporate new ones into familiar, existing services. We will hear from nine innovators in the field, each of whom spent 2007 taking gaming in libraries in new directions, providing inspiration and leadership. I have had the good fortune to meet most of these people in person and learn firsthand from them how their unique, broader vision of gaming can transform library services, making them even more educational and/or social and/ or interactive. Their efforts to teach others the benefits of gaming (for patrons and librarians) has inspired me, and I thank them for their courage and dedication to providing the models that help illustrate the whats, whys, and hows for what can sometimes be a difficult-to-understandhow-this-relates-to-libraries topic. Talking points at the end of each chapter summarize the themes of the case studies and can be used when discussing gaming services in libraries.
One last note about recent developments outside of the library world. In 2007, P3: Power Play Publishing released The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual and noted the official spelling of video games as one word (videogames), not two.5 I have had trouble adapting to this convention myself, but this LTR represents my first full effort to finally integrate this new spelling into my own writing. Therefore, although it may look strange to you at first, I will be using the single-word reference throughout this publication. Hopefully it will have become second nature to all of us when we get to the end.
The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual www.gamestyleguide.com
Finally, this issue of Library Technology Reports is dedicated to Brent and Kailee, who first taught me the power of videogames, and both of whom I still miss very much. I also want to thank Kathryn Deiss, who teaches me something new every day and inspires me to look at the world in new ways.
Notes 1. “Top 10 Library Stories of 2007,” American Libraries 38, no. 11: 48, as cited on the American Libraries Forum Web site, http://al.ala.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=21 (accessed Dec. 20, 2007). 2. Elizabeth Lane Lawley, “Social Computing and the Information Professional” (closing keynote address, Internet Librarian 2006 conference, Monterey, CA, Oct. 23–25, 2006), discussed in Jenny Levine, “Social Computing and the Information Professional,” The Shifted Librarian blog, Oct. 26, 2006, http://theshiftedlibrarian .com/archives/2006/10/26/20061025_03_il_social _computing_and_the_information_professional.html (accessed Jan. 13, 2008). 3. Eli Neiburger, Gamers . . . in the Library?! The Why, What, and How of Videogame Tournaments for All Ages (Chicago: American Library Association, 2007). 4. Ibid., p. 10. 5. David Thomas, Kyle Orland, and Scott Steinberg, The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual (Power Play Publishing, 2007), p. 65.
Chapter 2
Broadening Our Definition of Gaming Tabletop Games [Margaret] Edwards expressed disapproval, however, of one NYPL branch where the librarians [in the mid-1930s] had enticed “juvenile delinquents” into the library with chess and board games. “This was the one activity I observed that I could not accept,” she said. —Virginia A. Walter and Elaine Meyers1
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Board Games with Scott http://boardgameswithscott.com
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may just be that sometimes the games are entered in the online catalog now, available for checkout and reserve. In the United States, these types of games are still popular and are even enjoying a renaissance (witness the recent spike in popularity of Sudoku among adults), but much of the emphasis in the media and in the entertainment industries has shifted towards video and computer gaming. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should abandon other types of games, especially when they are more compelling than ever. Dr. Scott Nicholson is an associate professor at the Information Institute at Syracuse University. In his day job at Syracuse, Nicholson has started the “Library Game Lab,” a research laboratory at the Information Institute that will explore the effectiveness of different types of gaming activities with different socioeconomic and age groups in libraries. He is passionate about this subject in part because he is a gamer himself. Nicholson runs an extremely popular Web site called Board Games with Scott, a series of video reviews of modern tabletop games that users can watch on the site or subscribe to as a podcast. Though the reviews are chiefly aimed at a general audience, he also provides advice and recommendations for librarians seeking to incorporate these games into their services.
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ince 2005, the emergence of videogaming in libraries has moved from peripheral status to mainstream discussion within the profession so quickly that it has replaced the more traditional connotation of the term gaming for some people. On the one hand, this can be a good thing if the immediate connotation for gaming is “[casino] gambling,” and indeed libraries often have to explain to funders, auditors, and administrators of parent institutions what type of gaming they are doing. On the other hand, this has meant that as more people learn about the benefits of videogames in libraries, our discussions may have lost sight of the historical use of games in libraries that paved the way for integrating new ones. For example, chess clubs are no strangers to our institutions. Many school and public libraries have provided organization of instruction and play, not just physical space in which children can engage in what everyone would consider to be educational gaming. As the quote beginning this chapter shows, chess and other board games were used in libraries as far back as 1933 with much the same disapproval now associated with video games. Some libraries still have an inventory of board and card games on hand for younger patrons to play, although fewer seem to offer these for circulation. (It’s interesting to ponder why we restrict this play to occurring only in the library; could part of the reason be to encourage social and educational play within our physical buildings?) Imagine a library not offering chess today because it would draw “juvenile delinquents.” And yet this is one reason cited against offering videogames as a service. Are the two really so different? Even though the service of providing tabletop games has been around for quite some time, how libraries implement it hasn’t changed much. In fact, the greatest change
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Figure 1 Scott Nicholson’s popular Board Games with Scott Web site, where he posts video reviews of new tabletop games.
Case Study 1 by Scott Nicholson Modern Board Games: It’s Not a Monopoly Anymore For some time, libraries have provided forms of leisure other than recreational reading. Many would be surprised to learn about British libraries’ supplying recreational activities as far back as 1824 as a safer alternative to public houses and other forms of inexpensive entertainment.2 Libraries have continued to provide forms of recreation, and board games have been one traditional form of nonbook entertainment.
Many libraries have a shelf of old board games sitting in the children’s section. Boxes of Candy Land, Monopoly, Stratego, and Risk sit waiting to entertain players, immersing them in a different world. Many adults in the United States no longer turn to these games for entertainment, feeling they have grown out of these childhood pastimes. Board games have fallen by the wayside as entertainment as members of the family each turn to their separate screens for enjoyment. This isn’t true around the world. Germans have embraced a variety of games as family and adult activities for decades. In the mid-1990s, games from Germany began to make their way over to U.S. shores and have made a significant impact on game design and the num-
ber of interesting board games currently available for play. At the same time, the games focused on combat that have been developed in the United States have traveled elsewhere. The result is that a growing number of game companies are either producing games imported from overseas or developing new games inspired by both an American and a European perspective. How Modern Board Games Are Different What are some of the aspects that many of these modern games have that make them different from American classics like Monopoly or Risk?
See Appendix A for specific recommendations for libraries of games that utilize these new techniques. Challenges and Suggestions
This brief article just touches the surface of the depth of tabletop games that have come out in the last decade.
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Conclusion
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Some of the difficulties with modern games are complexity and cost. The rule books can be complex and overwhelming so that some games can’t be easily learned by a quick reading of the rules just before play. Many of the boards and components for these games are much more detailed than classic American games, and the print runs are much smaller; therefore, the games are much more expensive than the games at a large department store. Replacement pieces can be more difficult to come by, but as producers of these games become aware of the library market for modern board games, it is hoped that they will offer replacement pieces or commonly supply extra pieces with games. A number of online resources have been developed over the last few years to support the board-game hobby. The best resource is a community-based site called BoardGameGeek (see the gray box at the end of this chapter). This site combines a giant user-submitted database of board games with metadata, images, reviews, and discussions for each game (and could be used as a model for a more interactive library catalog) with forums on many subtopics of the hobby. While the reviews and player aids on “the Geek” may be helpful, the real resource at BoardGameGeek is the community. Librarians looking to improve their boardgame offerings can turn to the Geek to find local gamers. Many communities have some type of regular game group, and if they do not, there are probably several board-gamers who would love to start one. Librarians could visit the Geek and search user profiles for board-gamers in their area and invite them into the library. These individuals are typically happy to teach others their games and would love being organizers for a library program on board games. This would allow the library and board-gaming groups to join forces to expose people to the variety of modern board games. The group would grow in membership and draw people to the library.
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• The focus is not on player elimination, but rather the game ends at some point and each player’s performance is measured. Player elimination creates games that can go on and on, providing fun only for the people who are still playing. A good social activity should allow everyone to be involved for the duration of the activity and not force some people to sit out of the game after they have been knocked out. Most of these modern board games have some type of an ending condition, and once that has been met, players have some way of calculating how successful they were in achieving the goals of the game. Some games have a specific goal the players are driving for, while others have a scoretrack tracking the performance of players throughout the game. • There is not as much “down time,” a term used for periods in a game where players are not involved and are simply waiting for their turn. Many modern board games use techniques that involve players frequently with the game. Some games employ regular trading or auctions between players. Other games break up a game turn into small actions, which sometimes are simultaneous, that engage players frequently. • There are more interesting decisions. Many of these games provide players with the chance to make multiple interesting decisions that bring in the chance to employ different strategies or tactics. Dice, if used, tend to be used in a way that players can make decisions based upon the probability of different combinations coming up. Luck tends to be employed through the drawing of cards, which provides a more controlled random selection experience upon which to base decisions than dice allow. The “roll-and-move” mechanic commonly employed in games produced in America over the last several decades is rarely seen in a modern board game. • There are multiple paths to victory. Another feature common to many of these games is that there
are several different (and valid) ways to achieve the goals needed to win the game. This can occur when a game uses a point system that rewards different types of decisions. This makes for a very replayable game as players can explore different paths each time.
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