UK Gaming in Libraries Day?

[Carl Cross]

This Saturday libraries all over the US will be celebrating National
Gaming Day. Never one to shy away from pinching a good idea (like this
discussion list for instance) I think we should do one too.

And so does Phil Bradley whose seemingly innocent post to this blog
provided the necessary spark:

http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=1076#comments

I know Matthew Imrie of Teen Libarian fame is behind it (he said so in
not one but two Tweets) but what about you? Do you think you can make
a UK Gaming in your Library Day a reality?

I think we should start small, pick a day (probably a Saturday) and
promise to provide one gaming activity on that day. It could be based
around console or PC gaming, hobby or traditional games or even
something else like a make and play workshop based on print and play
games. We could use this list to collate ideas and good practice.

At the most basic level we would simply pick a day (probably a
Saturday) and provide at least one gaming event in at least one of our
libraries.

It would be nice if we could have a website for folks to find out what
is happening and some consistent branding for publicity. In short a
bit like this:

http://www.ilovelibraries.org/gaming/

The next step is finding out who would be interested in taking part
and if we want to wait until the next US date in November 2011 or set
our own date.

Carl.

[Kevin O]

I think it is a great idea and I know some boardgames groups are aware
of the campaign in the US and will be looking for ways to support it
in the UK and so would be open to approaches from libraries, should
the libraries not have the resources themselves.

Kevin

[Carl Cross]

I'm forwarding Kevin's full answer to this thread here.

Thanks for this lead Kevin, I've emailed Imagination Gaming (which
looks great btw) and look forward to working with them in the future
hopefully.

Carl.


**Kevin's email follows***

Hi Carl

I think it is a great idea and I know some boardgames groups are aware
of the campaign in the US and will be looking for ways to support it
in the UK and so would be open to approaches from libraries, should
the libraries not have the resources themselves.

If any libraries wanted to develop their own in house expertise in
running games related events (maybe even starting clubs) and or
suitable games for these kinds of events that are quick to teach, will
appeal to a wide cross section of society and could help increase the
use of the library over the longer term then Imagination Gaming (an
organisation I work with down in the South East but we have our core
team up in the Sheffield area) would love to help out. It is because
of this obvious commercial comment / pitch that I replied directly
rather than post a public response as I did not want to offend any
sensitivities and didn't know how people would react to my offer. I
would appreciate your thoughts / guidance on this area?

Best wishes

Kevin