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Categories: Interview
Tags: ala, beth gallaway, information goddess consulting, library
Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley could learn a lot from Beth Gallaway. Foley, you might remember, reacted poorly when a tax payer complained about a YouTube video showing Nebraska Library Commission employees setting up and playing Rock Band. Said the auditor, “Sure enough it was state money that was used. It was state employees on state time during work hours playing with and setting up a play station video game system.”
Conveniently during this kerfuffle, I was already conducting an interview with Beth Gallaway. Beth runs Information Goddess Consulting which helps libraries bridge the connection between librarianship and gaming.
“Games are information and stories, conveyed in an interactive digital format, and thoroughly legitimate. Gamers should expect librarians to treat games like any other material in the library.”Game Couch: Beth, if I were to draw a Venn diagram showing gaming and libraries, you would be in the overlap. How did you get there and is it a lonely place?
Beth: It’s not very lonely, because there are a lot of librarians who play games!
We didn’t have a console at home until 1987, and that was at my younger brother’s request not mine! My brother was a more serious gamer who wanted every new system. I’d rather be reading a book than gaming, most of the time, but I loved Gauntlet and Bonk, and came in second place in a Tetris contest at the local video store (I think I was 14, and broke past level 20). In college, I discovered simulation games, like Sim Earth and Sim Ant and Sim City, but I didn’t have my own computer to play on until the middle of junior year.
I am a casual gamer who dabbles in a lot of different types of games, and then goes right back to the Sims 2, where I build Frank Lloyd Wright inspired houses. I already pre-ordered my copy of the Sims 3, which is due out in June 2009. I’ve been playing WoW off and on for a couple of years, and currently play a level 73 prot-specced paladin.
My work study job at my college library led to exploring a Masters in Library Science. I volunteered in the children’s room at the local library throughout library school, and a young adult services position serendipitously became available less than six months after I graduated. One of my first tasks was to develop a guided access web portal for teens, with teen input. The teens asked for links to games, and I added cheat code websites (see how the page evolved).
It never occurred to me this was a cutting edge thing to do.
I added strategy guides and gaming magazines to the collection. When the teens saw we supported gaming in all these ways, they asked for a collection to be established. A handful of kids did research on the benefits of games, came up with a list of titles to purchase, and made a pitch to the director that included loaning him a PSOne for the weekend. He approved a request of $1000 for a circulating collection of games that could be rented for $1 a week. I took a new job, as a regional youth services consultant, before the collection debuted.
The first week of my new job, I attended a workshop on gaming at the library, facilitated by Linda Braun. That’s when it clicked that what I was doing was unique, and this was a cause I could champion.
Game Couch: As a librarian, I’m aware of how game-friendly libraries have become, but I know the general gamer might not associate libraries with gaming. How are libraries reaching out to gamers?
Beth: Some libraries are more gamer-friendly than others; many libraries are only focusing on teenage gamer patrons. Libraries are reaching out to gamers by offering a variety gaming experience that draws in current cardholders and new users. The method varies from community to community. Some offer family board game nights, others focus solely on competitive tournaments, some are running Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, some buy a Wii and bring it everywhere from the senior center to the charter school; school librarians are connecting with teachers to use board games as educational tools that align with curriculum. Big Games are growing in popularity, activities like integrating a geocaching or scavenger hunts with clues based on books like To Kill a Mockingbird and October Sky.
Libraries are also doing things connected to gaming, that don’t necessarily involve gaming. College libraries are hosting career nights with people in the game design industry, public libraries are hosting game design sessions using Scratch with teens, academic librarians are integrating gaming principles directly into information literacy and bibliography instruction sessions (i.e. using fantasy football as model for how to research a subject and evaluate a website).
The most successful programs have gamer input: participants get to pick what to play. Talking to gamers, getting gamers to volunteer to help at gaming events, and including surveys, including program evaluations, are all ways to get feedback.
Libraries great at a LOT of things; they are not so good at telling their stories or tooting their own horn. Some don’t get the press out beyond the library website (or even flyers hung in the building). Librarians need to do a better job connecting with the places their local gamers ARE, like posting their LAN party event to LANParty.com, and working with their local toy, hobby and game shops to partner on programs.
Game Couch: It looks like gaming in libraries has really taken off with this generation of consoles – why didn’t libraries have Atari night when I was growing up?
Beth: There are a handful of libraries that circulated Atari games; I don’t think anyone did programs with Atari. Videogames had a much more negative stigma, back then. Games like Doom and Mortal Kombat were getting a lot of negative press, arcades were regarded as pool halls of the times, and the book The Devil’s Web demonized Dungeons and Dragons in much the same way comic books were victimized in the 1950′s. Gaming was regarded as something social misfits did at home in their basements.
The folks who grew up gaming, never stopped playing, and now they are parents, gaming with their children. Parents and educators are increasingly well-versed in what games are, and aren’t. There is new research every week showing how videogames, among other things, are social and educational, build literacy skills, teach critical thinking and problem solving, help people in chronic pain escape from their medical issues, inspire youth to become more civic minded, and act as catharsis for those who are stressed.
Gaming has become ubiquitous with the public that libraries serve. It’s hard to ignore something that 97% of your teens and 25% of your seniors are doing!
Game Couch: As a gamer, what should I expect from my library? – and if they aren’t meeting my expectations is there anything I can do about it?
Beth: A gamer should expect to NEVER apologize for their reading habits, or the gaming habits. Any requests for games or gaming related items should be treated with the same dignity, respect and confidentiality as any other materials request. If a gamer asks for a cheat code, the librarian should treat it as a serious reference question, and not dismiss it.
Games are information and stories, conveyed in an interactive digital format, and thoroughly legitimate. Gamers should expect librarians to treat games like any other material in the library. If a gamer requests a game-related item, and the librarian can’t locate it in the system, the gamer should expect that the library will take the request seriously and try to purchase it, or request it from another library.
Gamers should anticipate that the librarian may not know how to spell, say, Mario Kart with a “K.” Give as much information as possible. Be polite, but don’t accept “No, we don’t have it” for an answer. Your tax dollars fund your public library and collections are built based on community interest. Ask to place a hold request, or to speak to the collection development librarian. Drop a note in the suggestion box and include your name and contact information for follow-up, request that gaming be put on the board meeting agenda and attend (usually, they are open meetings), or request an audience with the director and or collection development librarian.
Gamer should expect the library to pay attention to requests for game-related books, music and movies; if those requests are increasing, items should be purchased for the library’s OWN collection, instead of continually getting them from another library.
Gamers should expect that a library that has a collection of R-rated films for adults should be willing to consider a collection of M-rated games for adults. Be prepared to offer guidance, suggestions and resources.
In fact, gamers should expect their expertise to be solicited, and offer it, if it is not. Volunteer to participate in a Gaming Discussion Group or Gaming Advisory Board to entertain the notion of a collection, help librarians decipher game reviews, provide information about Game of The Year Awards, and pass along current research about videogames and violence, videogame legislation.
Gamers should recognize that not all libraries feel they have the time, space, staff or money to put on a formal gaming program, as some large urban libraries have done. Every community is unique. That said, gamers willing to donate time, materials, or money should step up. Chances are, if you want to play RuneScape or mini-golf or Apples to Apples or Rock Band at the library, other people in the community do, too. Request a meeting room to hold your own Gaming Club meeting and if there is sustained interest, approach the library to establish a formal, library sponsored event.
Game Couch: You have a book coming out soon.
Beth: It’s at the copy editor! Game On! Gaming at the Library is a book targeted at librarians serving teens; all of the services discussed can be adapted for other age groups and other types of libraries. It’s designed like a game, a little bit! Level One, the backstory, covers some history. Level Two discusses benefits and perceived negatives about gaming. Level Three suggests services to gamers that don’t involve gameplay. Level Four focuses on model videogame play programs at the library. Level Five is about collections. Level Six is a brief look at the possible future of gaming, and its implications for libraries. Non-novices can “cheat” and skip ahead to the parts that interest them. Easter eggs (in the form of sidebars) are scattered throughout as informational tidbits. Each chapter concludes with a mini-game related to the content, and a “strategy guide” appendix of resources. A companion website [Game On] will host all the reproducibles, as well as direct access to my annotated Delicious bookmarks: links to all of the works cited (over 150), core collections, games to link to from your library website, and model programs.
The book should be available from Neal Schuman in May 2009, for $55; you can pre-order it now.
Game Couch: We’ve talked about what individual libraries can do. Is the American Library Association getting involved?
Beth: Yes! “Libraries, Literacy and Gaming” Grants were announced February 23. The application is online and must be submitted online by 11:59PM on Friday March 20, 2009.
The purpose is to help libraries of all kinds develop and implement gaming experiences that support literacy development for youth 10-18 years of age. Funds ($5000.00!!!) may be used to expand or add literacy-based gaming experiences at your library (for youth ages 10-18).
Again, we are stressing ALL types of gaming, in ALL types of libraries – literacy based and youth 10-18 are the caveats.
We created a fact sheet about Gaming & Literacy, to help applicants justify their programs. As with any grant, the details are important. Pay close attention to the question prompts on the narrative description page. I am expecting the competition to be fierce. Contact Dale Lipschultz with questions at 312-280-3275 or dlipschultz@ala.org.
These mini-grants are part of the $1 million dollar grant ALA received from the Verizon Foundation in June 2008; it had an adult literacy component, and a Libraries, Literacy and Gaming component. The grant also funded a panel of experts who helped develop The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming, that includes resources and best practices — all types of gaming programs in all types of libraries, for all ages.
Game Couch: What other resources are available for people interested in libraries and gaming?
Beth: The Librarian’s Guide to Gaming: An Online Toolkit for Building Gamingi n Libraries just debuted.
The LibGaming Google Group, moderated by myself has over 650 members, including some lurking designers and vendors. I’d like for this group to integrate to ALA Connect when it debuts in March, and for everyone to “join” the Games and Gaming Member Initiative Group (GGMIG). You do NOT have to be an ALA member to participate in ALA Connect or join the GGMIG.
The Games and Gaming Member Initiative Group, focused on integrating all types of gaming across other ALA divisions. We meet at midwinter & annual to share best practices, news & information, host the Open Gaming, and will be putting on a program at Annual.
An annual gaming census: a voluntary survey about gaming in your library, administered by Scott Nicholson at the Syracuse GameLab.
There is a monthly Games in Libraries podcast, hosted by Scott Nicholson. Anyone can contribute! I’m experimenting with a call in service to make it really easy for anyone to submit a game review, success story, etc.
Look for an increased number of gaming programs at ALA Annual (perhaps enough for a gaming track, soon)! We’re keeping track here: Librarian’s Guide to Gaming: Event Calendar.
Boz:
I wonder, as there such resistence to including audio and video in library collections when they were new? These are now normal, expected library assets. What, if anything, finally made the difference?
Terry:
It’s funny because at some point in my library’s past, we circulated paintings. I think at a micro level you have some libraries who are willing to circulate anything (puppets, tools, people, etc).
On a macro level, I think you need a few different factors: a shift in attitudes (often generational), support from the vendors most libraries use, and public expectations.
Back to your question, DVDs now make up 50% of our circs, but there are branches which are still making the transition from VHS to DVD because of the technology their patrons have. I can’t say there was any resistance, but there was a high amount of caution especially since the early days of DVD resembled the VHS/Betamax horror.
Of course, now that DVDs are a library staple there’s Blu-ray, which we aren’t going to touch — especially since the real future seems to be downloadable/streaming movies.
Liz:
I’ve been in libraries long enough to have seen them loan out paintings, vinyl records, and children’s toys. Movies raised eyebrows, first in tapes and then in DVDs. (“Why offer THAT? They can get movies at Blockbuster and they’ll steal ours!”)
What people have forgotten, and none of us are old enough to remember — there once was resistance to libraries carrying NOVELS as opposed to Serious Non-fiction. Then the first novels had to be “uplifting literature” — not mere entertainment.
Such change requires time, more than anything. Who would question a public library carrying novels nowadays?