Hello everyone,
My name is Ivan. I'm a librarian from the Public Libraries Singapore
and a long-time lurker in this list. I'd like to share our recent
Gaming experience. It was a preview session, where we "live" tested
the session by issuing a public call for volunteers. Details are at my
personal library-related blog:
http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/11/gaming-preview-session-...

Quick summary:

1) In developing the concept and justifying to the National Library
Board on why we should do this, my colleague and I referenced the good
work done by libraries in various parts of the world (so thanks for
sharing!)

2) Some thoughts that went into the design of our Gaming session:
- We deliberately structured it to make participants interact (in a
natural way) with others whom they are not familiar with.
- The session included both electronic console games and board games.
- Each station has a librarian/ volunteer facilitator to explain the
rules of the games, encourage interactions, infuse learning elements,
publicise/ promote the use of library collections.
- After each play, each group would move to the next station. The
session ends after two hours.

3) We did not want to provide an arcade-style "play-and-scoot" sort of
thing, for strategic reasons. I'd like to explain it this way: we do
not want participants, the public or  our management, to think that
the library is merely providing games for people to entertain
themselves. While there's nothing wrong with that, it inevitably
invites the questions "Why is the library doing this?" and "Is this
part of the library's core business?"

Item 3 seems to be the biggest challenge, so I'd appreciate any views
and insights that you might have. After our preview session, my
colleagues and I discussed that we needed to provide scripts for the
librarians/ facilitators on what to say/ do that will make the
connecting of gaming and learning more apparent. But subtly as well.
For instance, could be a pop-quiz or an 2-min intro of the context/
development/ real-world example of the game, or a 2-min book-talk of a
story that has relevance to the game. Stuff like that.

We'll be offering 10 gaming sessions over the next 2 months. After
that, we'll evaluate and decide if this can be something to offer on a
regular and longer-term basis.

OK, this has become a longer post that I expected.

Best regards!

Ivan Chew
Senior Manager, Adult & Young People's Services
Public Libraries Singapore
www.pl.sg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Every Book its Reader; Every Reader his Book"
S.R. Ranganathan. 1892 - 1972
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://RamblingLibrarian.blogspot.com
http://MyRightBrain.wordpress.com
http://ccmixter.org/people/ramblinglibrarian
http://tinyurl.com/abt-RamblingLib
http://www.google.com/profiles/ramblinglibrarian