I don’t speak or read Lithuanian and you probably don’t either. Good thing that nice design transcends language. Take a look at these beautiful sites.
The first image is the homepage of a big Lithuanian library wiki called Grazi tu Mano.
And *this!* This is the start page for a library run Alternate Reality Game called Paskutinis valdovas which makes me really wish I was able to read Lithuanian. The start of the game is a note left for the story’s main character by a girl in the library.
What an inspiration!
Genre-X is a library book group for 20 and 30somethings at the Oak Park Public Library. They don’t always meet in the library, however. They meet at local watering holes. This is great, but it isn’t the only thing they’re doing right. They recently had a hi-lo gaming event with a Nintendo Wii and board games, and DJs. 
What’s more, they had a group member draw and hand screen posters for the event too. This seems like a small thing but it was quite a nice touch. It let a group member contribute to the project, emphasized something local and DIY, and provided added value that a lame 8.5×11 photocopy simply would not have added.
A follow up post states that event was a big success, attracting over 60 people to the library after hours.
Two bonuses. 1. The genre-x blog is particularly attractive. 2. When you visit the “about” page on the site, it doesn’t first go into details about the group or the library. It highlights the people behind the group.
Congrats to the folks at OPPL for connecting with a group that libraries have traditionally ignored.
What: Gaming (& Gadgets!) Night
Where: CIL 2008, Jefferson Room
When: Sunday, April 6th, 5:30-8:00 pm
How much: FREE
Who: You and other people interested in gaming
Jenny Levine and I have given a few gaming workshops at past Computers in Libraries and Internet Librarian conferences. After the sessions we’ve opened up the room to anyone interested in playing some games and/or learning about gaming. It’s proven to be a popular and really fun time, so this year Information Today has turned the post-workshop gameplay into a featured event. With refreshments even!
We’ve assembled an impressive array of games!
Systems: Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2, and Xbox 360. We’ll also have two Nintendo DS handhelds.
Games: Wii Sports, DDR, Hotel Dusk, Guitar Hero III, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Wario Smooth Moves, whatever you bring, and Rock Band.
Since we’ll have three systems going at once, we’re opening up the option of an honest to goodness tournament with prizes. You probably want to know which game, huh? Well, it’s up to you. Sign up in the comments here or at a page we’ve created on the CIL08 wiki titled CIL08 Gaming Night to play Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or DDR. We’ll play whichever game gets the most signups!
In addition, Chris Harris is bringing some modern board games. Bring your own games, bring your latest shiny, new gadgets, and we’ll see you Sunday night!
Our DVD player died after over six years of heavy use. The only logical replacement was a PS3 since it can play DVDs (and upscale them), Blu-ray discs and of course games. This will probably be the last physical media device we buy. Crazy!
The system came with a copy of “Spider-man 3″ on Blu-ray that is hopefully going to find its way into the NPPL’s collection. Once we get this cataloged correctly I’ll likely buy a few more Blu-ray titles. Just enough so that we can advertise that we have a small collection. Not only will it serve as a good experiment to see if the discs are popular, it will also serve as good marketing for the NPPL. Even if swarms of people don’t have Blu-ray players (yet) it will showcase the library as a place with exciting new stuff that understands what’s happening in the larger information world. All that for $200? A bargain! It doesn’t always take much to try new things.
We’ll make our Blu-ray discs non-holdable for a month, just like our other new materials. Yes, this slightly diminishes the spirit of library sharing and maybe inconveniences some non-NPPL patrons. However, it drives some in house traffic to our relatively new beautiful library. While that sounds like a library-centered policy (bad!), it isn’t *fully* library-centered. The non-holdable period keeps new and popular titles around for people in North Plains to browse. This makes residents of North Plains happy and increases the library’s “placeness,” making it interesting and vital.
It is the middle of March which means that a bunch of library geeks will descend on Crystal City, Virgina next month for Computers in Libraries 2008. The conference is trying some new things this year and I’m excited to be a part of some of them.
Helene Blowers suggested that a Pecha Kucha presentation be held. Six of us will have 20 slides and 20 seconds each slide to make a point. I’m moderating the track that this is in which means I get to cut people off mid-sentence during this session. Fun! [Tuesday, Track C, 4pm]
Jenny Levine and I have been doing gaming workshops at the past couple IL and CIL conferences with some informal open gaming afterwards. It has morphed into a Sunday night event: the Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo. I need to start practicing being a Guitar Hero.
I’m facilitating a postconference workshop with some top notch library thinkers.
Helene Blowers, John Blyberg, Sarah Houghton-Jan and David Lee King will be giving short presentations followed by conversation and brainstorming. It should result in some great potential projects!
Tuesday morning’s keynote will be given by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer from the Delft Public Library. Their presentation at Internet Librarian last year might be my favorite conference moment of 2007. This should be just as good! They’ll share stories from their 2007 tour of U.S. libraries.
Tuesday night is the Second Annual InfoTubey Awards for outstanding library marketing on YouTube.
Hurrah for learning!
Scott Jeffries, Reference Librarian at Dallas Baptist University writes,
For four afternoons in November, the Dallas Baptist University Vance Memorial Library hosted their Are You As Smart As A Freshman? event. Patterned after the popular game show Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, this event had 2nd-4th year students competing for prizes by answering questions that university freshman should be familiar with. They were able to use a panel of Freshmen as part of their “lifelines” as well as one of the library’s reference librarians …The intent of the event was to raise awareness of the library and its resources and to offer a fun outlet for students within the library’s facilities.
Gaming in libraries does not just mean video/computer games! Nice work!
I’ve been emailed a lot with questions similar to this one that appeared on the LibGaming google group.
I do have the question of whether there are legalities of using
Nintendo images/wallpaper images (located throughout their website) for our first upcoming gaming event?
Eli Neiburger chimes in with a great response:
You are in the clear. I was told by GolinHarris, Nintendo’s Marketing Firm, that using their Intellectual Property in promotional materials for a free library event is allowed and legal. You are promoting their products. They love that. =) There is no legal issue here. This is allowed, and even encouraged, by the rightsholders. Let me know if you have any other questions about this!
→ A Halo 3 marriage proposal
→ half-life 2 real-time strategy mod
→ symantec’s FPS about network security
→ micro counter strike
FPS for cell phones
→ Virtual crack houses aid rehab
Gaming, Pavlovian conditioning and recovery
You all are playing around with the Nintendo DS, right? The awesome handheld gaming system that features titles such as (my favs) Brain Age, Cooking Mama, Trauma Unit, and the game that’s practically an interactive eBook – Hotel Dusk? It really is great device, and is, like the Nintendo Wii, fairly multi-generational.
Nintendo DS toiletry by nicolasnova
Here’s a service station that a mall in Korea created. Whilst shopping, people can recharge their DSs, and clean their touch screens. This is a fantastic example of an institution understanding the habits of their customers. Not only should libraries be this understanding in general, but some might be able to replicate this particular service.
[via pasta&vinegar]
