My Official Position

Game cultures feature participation in a collective intelligence, blur the distinction between the production and consumption ot information, emphasize expertise rather than status, and promote international and cross-cultural media and communities. Most of these characteristics are foreign, or run counter to print-era institutions such as libraries. At the same time, game cultures promote various types of information literacy, develop information seeking habits and production practices (like writing), and require good, old-fashioned research skills, albeit using a wide spectrum of content. In short, librarians can't afford to ignore gamers.

The above (and all subsequent quotes) is from Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler's Library Journal article entitled Meet the Gamers (April 2005). As I look closer at the role of games in learning, I am beginning to appreciate how much there is to learn and how much the young gamers I know have learned without any of us realizing it. Gamers at the very least learn problem solving. They must examine the courses before them, evaluate them to determine what is appropriate for the situation and test their choice. If Choice A proves wrong, they re-evaluate, and test the next choice. There are times where a gamer is unable to figure out a problem on their own, so they may actually do research out of books or online to answer their questions. Or they may confer with other gamers to get more information. Does this sound familiar? (think reference work)

"The parallels to library users, especially undergraduates, is striking. After all, library sites offer multiple, and at times competing, information sources that users must navigate. What's the difference between EBSCO's Academic Search Premier and ProQuest's General Reference? Likewise the whole issue of evaluating information found on the web, both its authenticity and its applicability, is a major component of library literacy efforts. Gamers grow up in a media landscape with even more complex, shifting dynamics than their parents did, and they will be expecting libraries to react to these changes."

"This kind of knowledge seeking and creation is common in digital spaces. Groups of people from around the world solve problems with an array of information, digital tools, resources, screen shots, and arguments. Commercial developers, doctoral students, and 16-year-olds in Nebraska play, think, and learn together. The discussions in Apolyton reflect a level of expertise as players are encouraged, even required, to bolster their arguments with evidence and reasoning.The most discernable barriers to participation are free time, reading level, self-confidence with the medium, and fluency in a somewhat technical discourse."

In my last post, I talked about what the word library means and said I think that libraries are places to use information. Similarly, computer and video games teach gamers to use the information encountered in the game. I would argue that gaming is perfectly compatible with the library setting and would love to see gaming in our local library. The added benefits, of course, would be getting kids (especially preteen boys) close to books and surrounded by books and readers, which would undoubtedly be a good influence on them. And also for the librarians, having these kids in the library for a gaming event gives the librarians a glimpse into the (strange) world of preteens, which would enable them to further gear programming and acquisitions to their interests.

What exactly defines a library?

Since the gaming topic came up, I have thought about this a lot. My ideas about libraries stem from childhood and then through college, all of which occurred before the internet was anything usable to the average person. I think of rows of shelves, with books nicely shelved, card catalogs, tables and chairs with people reading. There was never any noise in the library, even in the children's section. The library was serious business.

Today, when I go to the library, I still see the books, of course, but there is so much more! Bright colors, computers, rooms with media equipment for small groups, etc. With the electronic age, and all the various types of media available, we have redefined or rather expanded the scope of what one considers information. So there is the question, I guess. Are libraries repositories of books only? or rather of information? I think many, especially those of older generations, would argue that libraries are for books only, or at most books and music.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library gives a great definition of a library as "places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. More recently, libraries are understood as extending beyond the physical walls of a building, providing assistance in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools." But I think we need to take the definition further and see the library as a place to use that information, to experience what one can do with information. Information on its own is only facts and theories; learning takes that information to a new level and changes the one doing the learning.

Random Thoughts on the Topic

I have three kids. My life is spent monitoring who gets to play which electronic game at what time. We call the games "screens" at our house, as in "You better shape up or you will lose screens for the rest of the day!" I spend a lot of time wondering why my boys are so obsessed with GameCube. Are you surprised that I know the Zelda theme song? And the one from SuperMario Sunshine? No wonder I am feeling a little dumb being back in grad school, when my life consists of talking about what level you are on and which boss you want to beat today (This will sound like a foreign language to you if you don't have preteens.), and playing Polly Pockets. Don't laugh, my brain is mush.

So my instructor suggests the theme of gaming in libraries for a blog for our class. WHAT?!?! Kids are allowed to play these games even in the library now? Is there no escape? But I start thinking about it (since this is obviously the perfect topic for me), and asking myself why a library would think gaming is a good idea in a library?

This leads me to lots of other questions: What exactly defines a library? A building with books? But there are videos/DVDs now and we all seem to think that is a valid thing to lend. A community gathering place? Why NOT games? Could there be intrinsic value to them? Are they teaching my kids something?

I do see things they learn. My middle son learned to read faster because he had to read to play GameBoy games. They learn to cooperate. When they are playing, they put themselves in the place of the character and lose themselves in it. Sound familiar? Like when we read a really great novel?