Help me save my Magic Group

[Youth Services]

Greetings everyone,

Let me tell you a little bit about my situation and hopefully you can provide me with some advice on how to save my Magic Group.

I was just recently transferred from a branch position to the main library within the library system that I work for.  At the branch I had started a weekly Magic group that meets each Monday for MnM (Monday night magic)  from 4 till 8.  Each week the group averages 5 to 10 players showing up throughout the evening for casual play.  This is a great turn out for the size of this community in rural Ohio.  Well, we worked hard at getting new players to try Magic and get a DCI number and back in September I was granted Core level Tournament Organizer status and started running FNM (Friday Night Magic) in October.  I've been running it every week and have only had to cancel 2 events because of lack of players (need 8 players because it is a tournament format).  And I'm looking forward to running my first pre-release event in January.  Now I'm feeling pretty good about my group considering most of the programs for Young Adults/Teens don't see an average turnout of 8 people once a month let alone twice a week.

However, now I'm posted at the main library for my county system and my director is not a big fan of gaming in the library (even though the ALA is).  She doesn't think I should be spending so much time on gaming at my old jobsite (currently I am allowed to return to do these programs, but I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to).  My director is usually a numbers person so I thought that I could let the numbers speak for themselves, but that is not working.  I don't know if she thinking that I am playing Magic during the events (granted I do play every once and a while but that is only when we need an 8th for a tournament).  Most of the time I am working on fliers or book orders.

If there is anyone out there who can help me explain to her the importance of this group that would be great.

Thanks
Dusty

--
Dustin Harris
Youth Services
Defiance Public Library System

"Here, take a cookie. I promise when you're finished eating it, you'll feel right as rain."  

[Scott Nicholson]

> If there is anyone out there who can help me explain to her the importance
> of this group that would be great.

As with any gaming experience in the library, you need to start with
the goals of the library. You will have a hard time succeeding if
you come from the view of "here's why Magic needs to be in the
library."

If you can answer the following questions, you will be well-set to
talk to your director:

What goals or missions of the library are you trying to fulfill and
what audience are you reaching out to?

Why is gaming the best way to reach out to that audience instead of
other library services to fulfill that goal?

Why is Magic the best gaming experience to use for this audience and goal?


One problem that some folks make is they focus too much on a specific
game (many times driven by personal interest in that game) and
struggle to answer these big questions.

If you are struggling to answer these questions, then it may be that
your director is correct, and there are other ways in which the
library can spend their time, money, personnel, and space resources.

[Beth Gallaway]

I think that measuring program success only with attendance numbers is a mistake.

Once you have determined your goals, as Scottt wisely suggests, you could start implementing some outcome based evaluations to see what the teens are getting out of it, and what the impact is for the library. What changes in skill, knowledge, attitude, behavior, or condition, and it usually involves pre and post surveys.

IMLS has a solid overview at http://www.imls.gov/applicants/obe.shtm.

If attendance stats is the only measure of success, you may need to think about how to amp it up. Maybe the teens can teach others how to play, or moderate tournaments instead of just participating in them, or branch out to other games.

Beth
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[D]

Scott's suggestions/ questions look like the way to go but it's,
perhaps, tricky to come up with all the benefits/ arguments from
scratch. These posts might give you a few options:

http://thistlegames.com/thistle/2009/11/games-gaming-and-skills/
http://thistlegames.com/thistle/2009/09/future-learning-part-1/

Could be helpful to invite the director along too, or take some video
or images, (with permission), which highlight the 'soft skills' and
'engagement' players use/ develop.

HTH

David





On Dec 8, 3:18 pm, Youth Services <ys.johnson.memor...@gmail.com>
wrote: