Quiet in the library, or you'll be pwned.
Librarians are not noted for being hip. But libraries do try to keep up with the world in order to remain relevant. One trend that has long passed the point of being easy to overlook is gaming. It's a huge industry; even Hollywood has started to see real competition for its audience (there was much debate over whether Iron Man suffered from the near-simultaneous launch of Grand Theft Auto 4 a couple months back).
Well, the American Library Association hasn't missed the boat. As I write this, it's conducting this study. Or at least planning to conduct a study. The goal is to see if gaming can be used to improve literary skills.
On the one hand, I'm delighted to see the ALA looking seriously at gaming.
On the other hand, though, I'm a little disappointed at the implication they'll only embrace gaming if they deem it promotes literacy. Other widespread library programs -- like chess clubs, puppet shows, antiques roundups and so on -- don't inherently promote literacy, but we pursue them anyway. Can't it just stand on its own merits? If one does take the stodgier view that gaming needs a literary angle, there's a huge body of work that clearly makes that case. Many video games have been spun out of the work of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, not to mention the world of sci fi.
But anyway, here at Twinsburg we're not waiting for study results. Our LAN parties have been huge draws for teens and young adults. And a new series of gaming parties will hopefully expand on that. Check out our Steam (it's a gaming thing) page for details: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/twinsburg.
Librarians are not noted for being hip. But libraries do try to keep up with the world in order to remain relevant. One trend that has long passed the point of being easy to overlook is gaming. It's a huge industry; even Hollywood has started to see real competition for its audience (there was much debate over whether Iron Man suffered from the near-simultaneous launch of Grand Theft Auto 4 a couple months back).
Well, the American Library Association hasn't missed the boat. As I write this, it's conducting this study. Or at least planning to conduct a study. The goal is to see if gaming can be used to improve literary skills.
On the one hand, I'm delighted to see the ALA looking seriously at gaming.
On the other hand, though, I'm a little disappointed at the implication they'll only embrace gaming if they deem it promotes literacy. Other widespread library programs -- like chess clubs, puppet shows, antiques roundups and so on -- don't inherently promote literacy, but we pursue them anyway. Can't it just stand on its own merits? If one does take the stodgier view that gaming needs a literary angle, there's a huge body of work that clearly makes that case. Many video games have been spun out of the work of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, not to mention the world of sci fi.
But anyway, here at Twinsburg we're not waiting for study results. Our LAN parties have been huge draws for teens and young adults. And a new series of gaming parties will hopefully expand on that. Check out our Steam (it's a gaming thing) page for details: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/twinsburg.
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