more on Everything Bad is Good for You

If everything "bad" is indeed good for you, what does this mean for the world of Libraries and/or Educational organizations?

I think this just means that libraries and other educational institutions will have to learn to adapt and embrace new things, just as they have done for decades. There was a time when people felt that novels weren't appropriate materials for libraries, but in this day and age no one even questions whether or not the public library will have the new James Patterson or Nora Roberts. At this point, we say "as long as they're reading."

So it will go with gaming. We'll say "at least they're in the library" and "at least they're learning something" (if, indeed, everything bad is good for you and they really are learning something). We already offer magazines that embrace pop culture like US Weekly, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Lucky, and we circulate DVDs and VHS and we have computers available that people use to keep up with their Facebook pages. Gaming is just the next step in library adaptation and staying relevant to users.

After all, I don't think it's really for libraries or librarians to make value judgments, but rather to provide the information resources that people want (and in the "everything bad is good" context, I think we can call video games "information resources"), just as we would when checking out a book we find personally distasteful.

Slingo!

Here's a screencast of me playing Slingo! Check Slingo! out at Yahoo! Games.

To Wii, or Not to Wii

(Sorry about the title, I just couldn't help myself!)

I work in a medium-sized public library (though definitely on the smaller end of that range). We were fortunate to win a Wii for our library at a CTLS event, but if we were planning to purchase a video game console my selection criteria would include: price, ease of use and set-up, availability and price of games and accessories, and user interest.

Researching the first three would be pretty easy. There are several Web sites I could use for price comparisons and video game reviews, some of which were cited on the SCILS 598 wiki. There are several methods I might use to determine which console would be most desirable to our patrons. First and foremost would be asking the users through surveys available in the library, on the Web site, and in local electronics stores and other places where gamers might be likely to see them. Another method would be to ask local electronics stores and rental stores like Blockbuster which games and consoles are most popular with their customers.

My choice would be the Wii and for my reasons, look no further than the Library Garden post on gaming consoles. It's the best bang for the buck, essentially.

And, you can play Rock Band and Guitar Hero on it.

Thing 12: Get your game on!

I'm going to go ahead and take this opportunity to brag about my skill at my favorite "simple" game: free cell. Seriously, I have an irrational love of that game and an irrational drive to win at it. My win percentage on my old computer was something like 96%.

See, what I'm really setting you up for here, with the bragging, is the embarrassing reveal that despite having a bachelor's degree in English, I kind of stunk at the Free Rice English vocab quiz. I enjoy the Free Rice site 'cause it's kind of fun to feel like you're helping a good cause while you goof off and, hey, you also just might learn something. But, I was hopelessly bad at it. I switched to world geography and kind of stunk at that, too. Yikes.

I guess while I'm making confessions, I should also mention that the high win percentage came while I was an undergrad and free cell was my number 1 way of avoiding paper-writing. These days I play a lot less of these types of online games, for basically the same reason I chat less: I'm just no longer tethered to my computer the way I was then.

Since I haven't really linked libraries and gaming in this post, I will at least tell you all the story of how it's all CTLS' fault that my fiance and I bought each other a Wii for Christmas before I was finished with my semester. Oops! At the same technology conference in Georgetown that kicked off this 23 Things thing, there were Wiis set up for Rock Band and Mario Kart. I had never ever played a Wii, despite having had several opportunities, but for some reason I tried Mario Kart that day and was hooked. Now I'm kind of hooked on Wii bowling. :-P